MISSION GAGILLAPUR: A COMMUNITY LED ...apmas.org/pdf/One year of Mission Gagillapur.pdfONE YEAR OF MISSION GAGILLAPUR..... Error! Bookmark not defined. Setting the context..... Error!

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MISSION GAGILLAPUR: A

COMMUNITY LED

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

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Contents ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................ 4

ONE YEAR OF MISSION GAGILLAPUR ........................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Setting the context ................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

The story of Gagillapur ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

The Shakti Hörmann Group ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Embarking on the Mission ................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

A Needs Based Assessment ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Conceptualizing Mission Gagillapur ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Progressing towards a sustainable future ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Media Coverage ................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

............................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Leveraging funds from other sources ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Lessons Learnt and Challenges Faced ................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS ................................................................................................. 15

Rationale for formation of VDC: ...................................................................................................... 16

Structure: ........................................................................................................................................... 16

Meetings: .......................................................................................................................................... 17

Election of Executive Committee: .................................................................................................... 17

Election of Office Bearers: ............................................................................................................... 18

Role of Functional Committees: ........................................................................................................... 19

Challenges faced: .............................................................................................................................. 19

SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS ..................................................................................................... 21

I. CASE STUDY ON PROVISION OF SAFE DRINKING WATER ........................................ 22

In the larger context ...................................................................................................................... 23

Water scarcity issues of Gagillapur, Telangana ............................................................................ 26

Rationale behind reviving the RO Water Plant ............................................................................. 27

Interventions taken up ................................................................................................................... 27

Management of the Plant .............................................................................................................. 28

Bottlenecks Encountered............................................................................................................... 28

A boon for plant survival .............................................................................................................. 29

Status of the Plant before Feb 2017 .............................................................................................. 30

Improving the reach of safe drinking water .................................................................................. 30

Voices of the stakeholders ............................................................................................................ 31

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 31

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II. CASE STUDY ON EDUCATION INTERVENTIONS .......................................................... 33


The story of Gagillapur ................................................................................................................. 35

Bottlenecks identified ................................................................................................................... 36

Education Interventions ................................................................................................................ 36

iii. Infrastructure ......................................................................................................................... 41

Challenges Faced .......................................................................................................................... 42

Way Forward ................................................................................................................................ 43

III. ANALYSIS OF LIVELIHOOD ........................................................................................... 44



Livelihood Assessment ................................................................................................................. 47

Collaboration with USHA International: ...................................................................................... 48

Way Forward: ............................................................................................................................... 49

IV. ENTITLEMENTS ................................................................................................................. 50


Learning from Other states ........................................................................................................... 51

Steps taken under Mission Gagillapur .......................................................................................... 54

Challenges Faced .......................................................................................................................... 55

Current status ................................................................................................................................ 56

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 57

V. ENTRY POINT ACTIVITIES .................................................................................................. 58


Importance of Entry Point Activities ............................................................................................ 59

VI. OPEN DEFECATION FREEVILLAGE .................................................................................... 63

In the Larger Context .................................................................................................................... 64


Way Forward ................................................................................................................................ 65

THE VIEW FROM THE OUTSIDE- MISSION GAGILLAPUR ........................................ 66

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ABBREVIATIONS APMAS/MAS Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society / Mahila Abhivruddhi

Society

ANM Auxiliary Nurse Midwife

AWW Anganwadi Workers

ASHA Accredited Social Health Activist

CMRC Community Managed Resource Centre

CSR Corporate Social Responsibility

EC Executive Committee

FC Functional Committee

FP Finance Partner

GGP Gagillapur

GP Gram Panchayat

GS Gram Sabha

IHHL Individual Household Latrine

MGP Mission Gagillapur

MPDO Mandal Parishad Development Officer

MPTC Manda l Parishad Territorial Constituency

NGO Non-governmental Organisation

OB Office Bearers

OBC Other Backward Caste

PM Project Manager

PO Project Officer

PS / EO Panchayat Secretary/ Executive Officer

RO Reverse Osmosis

RTE Right to Education

SMC School Management Committee

SC Scheduled Caste

SH Shakti Hörmann

SHG Self Help Groups

ST Scheduled Tribe

VDC Village Development Committee

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VMF Vande Mataram Foundation

VO Village Organization

WB World Bank

ZPHS Zilla Parishad High School

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Mission Gagillapur- A Year in Review- 2016-2017

March 2017

Background: Mission Gagillapur (MGP) is a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder, community driven

sustainable village development programme initiated by the Hörmann Group (HG) in partnership

with MAS. Work on the project started in late 2015 with a needs assessment study undertaken by

MAS. Subsequently, a partnership agreement was signed, and a Village Development Committee

(VDC) was formed in April 2016 as the nucleus of the development intervention. Unlike typical

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects, Mission Gagillapur does not intend to fund one-time

infrastructural requirements, or take a philanthropic approach to development. It seeks to empower

community institutions to enable them to envision a model village and follow it through with

concrete plans and actions to optimize human and financial resources. In a sense, it is a four-way

arrangement between the community, local Government, MAS and the Hörmann Group to make

Gagillapur a ‘model’ village in the broadest sense of the term. As it has been almost a year since the

formation of the VDC, MAS and the Hörmann Group are undertaking a reflective exercise to assess

performance (both internal and external), to absorb lessons learnt from the implementation process

and to plan for the short-medium term future of the project. This document is a summary of the last

year’s work and is intended to be the starting point of this reflective process.

MGP Context: Gagillapur is a peri-urban village in close proximity to the state capital of Hyderabad.

This translates into a unique set of characteristics for the village. It is not a cloistered community

which suffers from basic infrastructural gaps. Visibly, it is accessible by road, there are a large

number of industries in the area, no absolute poverty, most households have at least one person

employed and a fair amount of exposure to the outside world. In that sense, it is not a location

which will give corporations the ‘low- hanging fruit’ of visible development mostly driven by

infrastructure. Having said that, Gagillapur has all the development gaps exhibited by peri-urban

villages reacting to the rapid urbanisation of a mega city in such close proximity. Exhibit 1 below

shows a map of Gagillapur, with a layout of the five habitations and some key services:

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Exhibit1: Gagillapur Map with Habitations

A degenerated water table combined with the heavy presence of industries has resulted in an

almost perpetual shortage of safe water. Population explosion led by an influx of migrants as well as

the spread of Hyderabad has resulted in unmanaged solid and liquid waste and other problems of

governance and service delivery. Dispersed habitations springing up overnight cause an

infrastructural issue to the Government because land is at a premium- the pull between selling land

for revenue and keeping it for public use such as dumping yards or open spaces is ever present in the

village. The relative levels of development in habitations are also very different- habitations with

migrant populations suffer from a far more severe lack of services and development opportunities

than other habitations. Due to diversity of the village, unity and feeling of a community is limited.

Tied to all of the above living conditions is the fact that economic development aspects have

overtaken the importance of human development in the village. While gated communities and

private schools are mushrooming, Government schools suffer from a lack of good governance,

infrastructure or enthusiasm, the village has no Government run health centre, open defecation is

prevalent, and green cover is low. Community institutions such as Self Help Groups exist, but have

not been a strong force of development in the village. There is a locally elected Government, but

there are still gaps in development. In addition, the costs of living are very high due to rapid

urbanisation and as a result the aspirations of the community continue to drive them towards an

increased focus on quick (even if unsustainable) sources of income.

Over and above this imbalance between economic development and human development is the fact

that the village is fraught with a complicated socio-political situation, an absolute lack of a sense of

community ownership and years of getting used to easy donations from corporations without too

many questions asked. It is in this context that MAS and HG have chosen to operate- this task

therefore is a fundamental one- how does one bring about a sense of pride and unity in a village

where nobody has the real incentive to rise beyond day to day living and political gains?

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MGP Stakeholders:The different stakeholders in Mission Gagillapur have been depicted in Exhibit 2

below. As is clear from the diagram, the implementation of Mission Gagillapur is a layered exercise

involving negotiation and iterative dialogue with a variety of stakeholders with multiple, often

conflicting agendas.

At the core of the exercise is the VDC, the Gram Panchayat, the Private Sector located around the

village and members of the silent majority who may or may not participate immediately in our

initiative. It is their interaction with the funding partners (the Hörmann Group) and the

implementing partners (MAS, along with partnerships with other technical specialists where

required) that will determine the outcomes for the village.

With MAS, their interaction is at two levels- technical support from the MAS Headquarters, but also

through a ‘Community Managed Resource Centre (CMRC)’- a secretariat of sorts to the VDC that

MAS staffs and manages. With the Hörmann Group too, it is at different levels- with the factory,

there is a long standing relationship which will be strengthened through initiatives under MGP. In

addition, there is interaction with the MGP Project team from the company. These interactions with

the company are not as direct as those of MAS.

The results from these interactions in turn will lead to our engagement with other agencies in the

development space working on model villages, peri urban issues or in the sectoral areas we are

interested in (such as water, education etc.) As a result of these two way exchanges, we will

calibrate our engagement with the higher levels of Government both in Germany and at various

levels in India.

Exhibit2: Stakeholder Map- Mission Gagillapur

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MGP Chronology of Implementation:Before one understands the achievements and challenges

faced in Mission Gagillapur, it is important to realise that this work is as much about the ‘process’ of

implementation as it is about the outcomes. As has been mentioned above, community driven

development in Gagillapur is a complicated matter, and as such will require perseverance from our

end and sometimes going ‘back and forth’ on interventions so that we can find the right approach.

To throw light on this, Exhibit 3 below presents a summary of the interventions rolled out against

key points in time.

Based on the initial needs assessment, five intervention areas were identified for implementation-

strengthening of institutions, improving access to entitlements, improving education outcomes,

increasing skill levels and employability, and addressing key development gaps. Key highlights of

work over the last year across these areas are presented above.

Strengthening of Institutions: For the purposes of MGP, institutions include the GP, the VDC, the

SHGs in the village as well as other formal/informal groups such as local residents’ associations and

youth groups. Highlights of work in this area are summarised below:

VDC Formation

o A VDC has been formed with 19 members. Regular meetings are being conducted.

Thirteen meetings have been held till date. In these meetings interventions are

planned, progress is reviewed and any problems are addressed.

o Sub committees on Water, Education, Health & Women’s Empowerment have been

formed.

o VDC Capacity Building

o Training and orientation has been conducted

by other Model Village champions-

Gangadevipally and Narsingpally.

o The VDC has visited Gangadevipally to learn

first hand about their experiences and

challenges.

Exhibit 3: Chronology of Interventions

The Gagillapur VDC: Exposure visit to

Gangadevipally (model village)

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o VDC Operations

o A tracking system for following up on decisions taken in the VDC meetings was

instituted in October 2016.

o Entry Point Activities being undertaken by the VDC as their own projects to some

extent. These have been key to activating the VDC.

o Support is coming in from other corporations

too. It is too early yet to consolidate this as an

activity, but it is a good alternative to the earlier

system of unplanned giving.

o SHG Capacity Building

o Intensive competency development in SHG book

keeping has been provided by MAS through

exposure to their other model clusters of SHGs,

training by key community persons from other

villages with a highly developed SHG Federation

structure.

o This has shown positive results, i.e., grading

of SHGs has improved.

Improving Access to Entitlements: Following the sample

survey that was conducted for the needs assessment, a

more comprehensive baseline was conducted by the MAS

team- this included a house to house survey, followed by

two rounds of verification. There is now an intensive and

comprehensive understanding across all individual

household level entitlements so that as part of MGP, we

know how many households are in need of support. Some

entitlements are those of identity (Aadhaar Card), some have

to do with supplies from the public distribution system (Ration

Cards), some have to do with distribution of pensions to the vulnerable (widows pensions, old age

pensions, disability pensions etc.). Based on this, a ‘dashboard’ of household level entitlements

prepared. Status is presented in Exhibit 4 below:

*The 52 applications being processed pertain to Ration Cards which cannot be processed directly by the GP.

The timeline on these, therefore is not under the control of the MGP team.

Exhibit 4: Status on Improving Access to Entitlements

Status Number Remarks

Requisitions Collected 76 Number of households reporting that they needed help with claiming entitlements

Documents Available 66 Number of households that had the required supporting documents available

Applications Submitted 66 Number of applications submitted to the authorities

Applications Processed 14 Number of applications processed by the authorities

Applications in Process 52* Number of applications still being processed

Entitlements Received 3 (Aadhaar Cards)

Number of persons who have received their entitlement as a result of our faciitation

Auditing and grading of SHGsby

resource persons from Kamareddy

District, Telangana

Tailoring Centre established at the Resource Centre with of 40 trainees

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Increasing Skill Levels and Employability: An extensive survey was conducted for youth in early

2016. Although 40 of them were placed in job-linked skilling programmes, only 5 continued. This was

due to a variety of reasons including migrating population and mismatched expectations. Based on

this lukewarm response, further exploration was conducted to look at alternatives. Women formed

close to 99% of the demand in the second survey, most of them being interested in improving their

tailoring skills. Currently, 40 women are being trained on tailoring along with certification from a

reputed organisation (USHA Internationals). There is high potential for immediate self-employment,

credit linkages and further production support. In addition, discussions are at an advanced stage to

start a computer training institute for youth and women with support from Innofab Private Limited,

whose factory outlet is located in Gagillapur.

Improving Education Outcomes: In the education space,

MGP’s approach has been to try and understand demand,

build rapport with institutions involved and facilitate small

changes one step at a time, while working out plans for a

more extensive strategy with organisations who have specific

expertise in the area. The project has been extending event

related support for schools in the village for children’s day,

other national festivals, etc.Infrastructure improvement in

schools through facilitation of support from Government and

other corporate donors has been the most positive outcome in

education initiatives in the last year- much more is required to

be done, but it is a heartening beginning. In addition, to

improve the student- teacher ratio MGP has funded the salary of a volunteer teacher in the Primary

school of Church Gagillapur. Attempts to improve learning levels through remedial coaching,

partnering with other NGOs, twinning with other schools etc. have not yet yielded results due to

various reasons and these efforts continue in the future. The MGP team faced strong resistance

from the principal of the Government High School when they wanted to start remedial education

forstudents of Class X. However, the end result turned out to be positive because as a result of the

pressure exerted by the MGP team, the school started remedial classes on their own. There is also

an in principle agreement with MV Foundation, a sector leader, to undertake a status verification of

schools. This is expected to lead to a solid plan of action on education in Gagillapur in 2017-18.

Addressing Key Development Gaps: As discussed in the earlier section, there are significant

development gaps in Gagillapur, particularly concerning human development issues. Although the

range is quite broad, based on the initial needs assessment and demand from the community, three

key interventions were undertaken- one was the revival and running of the RO water plant, the

second was supplementing existing health services and the third was increasing the green cover in

the village.

Reviving and establishment of running of the safe drinking

water plant has been a long and iterative process with some

success, but it has come after a tremendous amount of

effort. The machinery in the plant was first repaired.

Subsequently, storage facility for raw water was created

with funds form the Panchayat. Operations of the plant

were first entrusted to a representative of the VO

(federation of Self Help Groups), and then, when the VO

submitted that it could not take responsibility for the water

Provision of school benches (35) to Primary school with the support of

Aurobindo Pharma

RO water plant revived for improving

access to safe drinking water

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plant, the VDC started running it through its Water and Sanitation Committee. After having gone

through initial hiccups of operationalisation, the plant is now functioning well. The VDC have also

recently purchased an auto to provide home delivery of this

water at a subsidised cost.

On the health front, occasional support was being provided

through the visits of a gynaecologist in addition to the

services provided by the ANM(Government para

medical),but this is not really sustainable in the long term

because of the associated costs. In order to use existing

resources efficintly, two health camps were organized in

collaboration with Mallreddy Medical College and Hospital,

the nearest private player in medicine to Gagillapur.

Meanwhile an assessment has been done by MAS’ internal

resource person, and the view is that while the Anganwadi

centre is one of the better off ones in her opinion, there are

specific cases of malnourishment, and gender based issues

surrounding women’s health. To this end, adolescent girls’

groups have been formed and behaviour change activities

will begin shortly. The specialist has also recommended a set

of activities to support pregnant and lactating women, all of

which will form part of next year’s action plan.

One of the private company, Granuels Limited, constructed a

Health Centre in the village at the request of the Gram

Panchayat by investing Rs.2.5 million. In the next couple of

years, Mission Gagillapur will have to work with all the

stakeholders to ensure effective functioning of the Health

Centre with adequate staff and equipment serving the

villagers.

The VDC, along with the Education Institutions and SHGs,

have also enthusiastically participated in the tree plantation

programme being run by the Government of Telangana, and

the survival rate of the plants from the last year is good, due to the support received from Innofab

for placing tree guards around the saplings. In addition to this, the Gram Panchayat ensure the

watering of these plants, by purchasing water tankers on a weekly basis.

On the sanitation front, a Swachch Gagillapur campaign (a cleanliness drive in tune with the Swachch

Bharat Mission of the Central Government) was held in the first phase of the project. The VDC

members, local Government representatives and MAS had come together to clean up a park in the

village. Although this was a good initiative to usher in behavioural change towards sanitation and

cleanliness, the efforts fell through as the participation from the community reduced, while the

project focused on other interventions like strengthening of the community institutions.

Financial Information:Total expenditure so far is just a little under 36000 Euro, which is about 23%

of the budget available, inclusive of 10% institutional cost. Project management takes up 78% of

programme expenditure followed by Strengthening Institutions. This is as expected since the first

Medical team from Mallareddy Medical

College and Hospital conducted health

camp in Gagillapur

Participation of school students in

plantation drive

Swachh Gagillapur

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year focused more on the community mobilization and establishing VDC as an institutional

mechanims for planning and implementation rather than the spend itself. Other funds have been

brought in to the extent of 20% of the HG programme spend. An audit of expenditures has been

recently concluded by HG, and any recommendations will be taken on board for next year’s

expenditures.

Principal Challenges: Mission Gagillapur is an ambitious project- one that requires patient

perseverance in the face of unwillingness on the part of many stakeholders to see the benefits of the

initiative, the existence of mutiple agendas pulling the project is different directions and a constant

pressure to take the easy way out by resorting to philanthropy and cheque writing as opposed to

driving a community driven development agenda. The first year has been a tremendous learning

experience for everyone involved- the VDC, the GP, MAS as well as the Hörmann Group have all

gone through a steep learning curve, and the year has been filled with challenges.

At the strategic level, the team was continuously moving back and forth with interventions so as to

arrive at a workable solution, balancing our preferred approach of long term gains with the

community expectations of immediate, visible gains. At the community level, the biggest challenge

was developing a sense of community among the citizens of the village given the socio-cultural and

geographic reality of the village. The emergence of the VDC as a participatory body for planning and

coordnating the development initiatives in Gagillapur was seen as an alternate power centre by the

elected representatives of the Gram Panchayats. We also had to work continuously on changing the

mind set of the community about how the HG approaches CSR- cheque writing as opposed to

partnership. Migration, and the frequent change in beneficiary groups also made it difficult to truly

understand the scale and scope of the task in front of the team.

It has taken us this year to also arrive at viable working arrangements- internally at MAS and also

between MAS and HG, so as to ensure optimal performance of all concerned with much greater

focus on the field implementation and evolving a shared vision and strategy. External to all this,

unseasonal and heavy rains in Telangana, the reorganisation of districts in Telangana, and

subsequent indifferent district administration after that have also affected implementation to an

extent. Demonetization initiative to withdraw Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes by Government of India in

November 2016 also had its effect on some of the implementation activities.

Overall Experience:

• The concept and idea of a model village has captured the imagination of policy makers and

corporations. Mission Gagillapur has been lauched at the right time.

• The VDC has been formed, has sustained so far and there seems to be unity emerging

among the VDC members to take forward community projects like 100% LED lights in the

village as a collaborative project of VDC supported by Mission Gagillapur, Gram Panchayat

and other private companies. It is also being regarded as an alternative to the earlier

development approach in the village- other corporations and donors are also coming

forward. The rolling out of the entry point activities has also brought in a renewed vigour

and enthusiasm to the group and set a precedent for public-private-community partnerships

by establishing a transperant and accountable mechanism at VDC.

• Team Gagillapur has rolled out initiatives- some have seen initial success, some have served

as learning opportunities.

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• Opportunities for intervention are emerging in the village. Priorities are now much clearer

than they were at the beginning of the project with increased role of community.

• 2017-18 has the potential to be the watershed year for work on Mission Gagillapur- building

on the current momentum and setting the tone and pace of work to come.

Reflecting on the first year’s experience, a foundation has already been laid for the future work in

Gagillapur with increased community participation through VDC. Developing a shared vision and

strategy with active participation of all stakeholders while we continue with the entry point activities

already initiated will ensure much greater ownership and responsibility for the community.

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COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS

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Rationale for formation of VDC: The Grama Jyothi scheme stresses on the need for each Gram Panchayat to develop a “Village Development Plan”, which consists of a perspective plan and a monitoring and coordination plan for improved service delivery. With the Gram Panchayat being entrusted with a wide range of activities, historically they have not been able to play a key role in governance and service delivery, with low levels of transparency and accountability. Several times, attempts were made by the Government departments to implement developmental programs at the Gram Panchayat level. Due to lack of synergy in their efforts, the efforts made by the departments were mostly in vain. Hence, the need for a Village Development Committee was felt. The VDC would be solely responsible for the village’s development needs and goals. In the state of Telangana, the VDC has played a key role in making model villages such as Gangadevipally in Warangal, Ibrahimpur in Medak district, Narsingpalli in Nizamabad district, Ankireddypalli guda in Yadadri district, etc.

Structure: The Gagillapur VDC was formed on 11th April 2016, after discussions held in the Grama Sabha, on importance of the Village Development Committee and need to establish a committee with elected representatives from the village. The membership required was between 10-25 members. In case of any vacancies, the members will be replaced by others.

Initially, a group of 22 members had been selected across 5 habitations. Gradually it was felt that some members were not keen on being a part of the VDC, and hence, they were replaced after taking a tally of the number of meetings attended by each person. If the number of meetings attended were less than three, that member would automatically be replaced.

The structure of the Committee is designed in such a way to ensure equal representation from all 5 habitations as well as marginalized sections in the community.

VDC Membership is open to all residents of Gagillapur. New members are considered after recommendations made by a member personally or by others in an annual VDC meeting, which has to be further approved by the EC of VDC.

The eligibility criteria for gaining VDC membership are:

- Sound health

- Aadhar card holder in the village

- Without any criminal records

- Compliance towork as per the guidelines of VDC

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Meetings: An annual body meeting is held once in a year after completion of the calendar year. The annual body meeting must have a quorum of 75% of the total members. The date, venue and agenda of the annual meeting will be intimated by person/message/post to all the members with a week’s notice.

Executive Committee meetings are to be held on first Saturday of every month, with a quorum of 50% of total members. The date, venue and agenda of the annual meeting will be intimated by person/message/post to all the members prior to the date of meeting.

Special meetings will be organized if the Office Bearers feels the need for the same, with a quorum of 10% of total members. A notice will be given two days prior to the date along with the special agenda. That meeting will only pertain to the special agenda.

Election of Executive Committee: The first EC of VDC was formed in an open Grama Sabha organized at the Grama Panchayat office, with 10-25 members representing all habitations of the village. The EC consists of Ex-officio members such as the Sarpanch, MPTC, ward members, Village Organization representatives, etc and one of the elders from each habitation as advisory members.

The Sarpanch and MPTC will be designated as VDC Chairperson and Vice Chairperson respectively, and remain elected up to the tenure of their elected posts. They will attend all the VDC meetings and advice the OB and EC for better performance in the village. The advisory members will be nominated by EC for tenure of two years to participate in all VDC meetings and provide suggestions for village

development.

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Election of Office Bearers: In the first year of Mission Gagillapur, the VDC was given the liberty to emerge naturally, keeping

with neutral community engagement practices.But eventually, due to lack of initiatives, this did not

work and resulted in misguided conceptions of what a VDC was meant to do, and who was to take

responsibility within the VDC. Eventually, it was decided to elect members and hold them

accountable to specific roles. Thus elections were held in December 2016 and a body of five office

bearers (OB) was elected. These Office bearers included the President, the Vice president, the

Secretary, the Joint Secretary and the Treasurer.

The OB will hold office for a total of two years, after which fresh elections will be held. The same office bearers can be re-elected for consecutive tenures.

The overall guidelines that all Office Bearers should follow are:

i. To attend all he VDC meetings and spend time on various developmental activities in Gagillapur

ii. To respect and take into consideration the views and opinions of other members

iii. To have patience and tolerance for others

iv. To voice opinions in a respectable manners

v. To have problem solving skills

vi. To have unity with other VDC members

Roles and Responsibilities of Office Bearers:

The Office Bearers are elected by the VDC members. They will be chair for a period of one year and can be re-elected on demand. Any office bearer can be removed on the grounds of misconduct.

The overall responsibilities of the Office Bearers are to supervise all VDC meetings, develop short long term plans for the VDC, monitor the activities, ensure functioning of functional committees, mobilize funds, work in coordination with Government officials and Gram Panchayat, resolve issues, etc.

Detailed roles of Office bearers are attached as Annexure 1.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Advisory Body:

Advisors must be elected from the ex-elected leaders of Local bodies, village elders and retired residents. Their primary roles are to attend VDC meetings, provide suggestions and advice for various activities and how to improve implementation, etc.

Detailed roles of Advisory Body are attached as Annexure 1.

Overall Roles and Responsibilities of VDC: The overall roles & responsibilities of the VDC can be enumerated as follows:

1. The villagers are able to solve the local problems on their own through the help of VDC

members.

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2. The VDC is an organized structure of the village people at the local level. It provides a

platform to create partnerships between the community and the public sector for improved

service delivery system.

3. The VDC members debate and finalize on the needs and gaps in the village and the

community. This gives the village people an element of control and responsibility in

development.

4. With each person acting as a check & balance on the VDC, it ensures proper use and

distribution of state funds and a greater interaction between government officials, NGOs and

agencies.

5. The village development committee ensures the participation of all sections of the society.

Role of Functional Committees: The emergence of Functional Committees under the Grama Jyothi was due to the need to have separate community representatives for each sector. The sub-committees will function under the VDC to achieve developmental outcomes. It shall ensure the involvement of all the elected representatives and concerned stakeholders to focus on issues affecting their respective sectors. Based on the needs identified in Gagillapur, the following Functional Committees were formed:

- Waterand Road Safety Committee - Livelihoods & Youth - Sanitation & Greenery - Health & Education - Women Development

The overall roles of the functional committees were to monitor & supervise activities for their respective sectors, bring in community participation, work with the VDC & GP to reach outcomes, solve issues with the support of VDC members, etc.

In Gagillapur, each of the Functional Committees was started with five members each. Since the VDC itself did not have any Office Bearers until December, the functioning of these sub-committees had sagged, due to lack of incentives to participate and lack of monitoring structure. With the decision to bring in certain visible changes, attemptshave been made to revive some of these committees. The Water& Road Safety Committee, Health & Education Committee and Women Development Committee, are the ones that have been revived with efforts from MAS and VDC.

Challenges faced: Gagillapur village with five different habitations, each with their own set of challenges, is a large & complex village resulting in a time-consuming progress to elicit community participation. Some of the challenges faced in forming community led institutions were:

i. Vested interests of political leaders:Before the starting of Mission Gagillapur, Gram Panchayat representatives and influential political leaders in the village have been seeking funds from various companies located in Gagillapur. Now with Mission Gagillapur initiating a systematic approach of visioning & developing a village development plan for sourcing the funds from the companies, in a transparent and accountable manner, the representatives & leaders feel threatened, which may have led to their lack of support for the VDC.

ii. Power dynamics:The elected Ward Members and Gram Panchayat representatives often feel threatened as the VDC may emerge as an alternate community institution, which is why there have been numerous efforts to block the emergence of a functional VDC.

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iii. Sub-committees acting as a check: MAS had activated the Functional Committee on water& sanitation. The members of the committee decided to monitor the supply of watertankers on a daily basis for the Gram Panchayat by the private watertankers. It was observed that they were submitting bills for 5 tankers per day, but supplied only 3 tankers. This constant monitoring & check might have contributed to the resistance to the VDC emerging as a strong institution promoting transparency & accountability of the Gram Panchayat, Sarpanch and Ward Members.

iv. External factors: External factors such as bifurcation of the State & Districts, recent devastation caused by the rains and State Government's own priorities have also contributed to the slow progress of the VDC.

v. Lack of awareness: Given the geographical setting of the village & high rates of migration, there still may be many others who may not have full information about the approach being followed for the functioning of VDC & FC resulting in some threat perception.

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SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS

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CASE STUDY ON PROVISION OF SAFE

DRINKING WATER

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In the larger context The provision of clean drinking water has been an important area of focus for the Government of India. The Constitution of India, under Article 47, delegates the duty of providing clean drinking water and improving public health standards of its citizens to the State Government.

As per Census 2001, 68.2 % of households in India have access to safe drinking water. The department of drinking water supply shows that out of the 1.42 million rural habitations in the country, 1.27 million are fully covered, 0.13 million are partially covered, and 15,917 are not covered. However, coverage refers to installed capacity and not the average actual supply over a sustained period or the quality of water being supplied. 1

Till the 10th Five Year Plan, the Indian Government had spent an estimated amount of 1,105 billion INR on providing safe drinking water. In spite of this, the problem of scarcity of drinking water still continues to plague different parts of the country, mainly because of the diversity in population density, difference in levels of awareness, socio-economic development, education, poverty, practices and rituals, which add to the complexity of the issue.

It is predicted that by 2020, India will become a water stressed nation. Groundwater is the major source of water with 85% of population dependent on it.

Government Policies have undergone a change since Independence. Earlier the focus was on setting up physical infrastructure through hand-pumps. Thereafter, efforts have been in seeking participation from the community. A national policy for water was drafted in 1987 and revised in 2002. In order to have a sustainable system in place, community participation was initiated for maintenance of rural water supply. Hence the previous “Government oriented supply driven approach” has been replaced by “People oriented demand driven approach”.

In areas where available water is not safe for drinking, reverse osmosis (RO) has been used for treatment of water. RO water plants designed by the CSMCRI (Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute) were installed where most of the water was brackish in coastal areas. The lessons learnt from the installation are:

i. Obtaining a reliable electricity supply is key to the success of water plants

ii. Villagers did not like the idea of adding chemicals to water, although all chemicals were

removed

iii. Transportation of water to other areas become difficult, in case of insufficient storage

capacity in the plant

iv. The plants should be robust and easy to operate so that the community is able to operate

the plant easily

CSMCRI has been engaged in researching and designing of RO water plants over the past 30 years and has installed a large number of RO Plants all over India.

The story of Tamil Nadu:

The district of Ramanathpuram, faced an acute shortage of water. Being a coastal area, seawater and brackish water were plentiful. To conduct desalination of sea water, RO Plants were setup, but replacement of membranes and maintenance costs were very high. A big centrally located plant also added to the cost of transporting water to houses. But smaller individual plants were too expensive to be installed in each village or habitation.

1(WaterAid, 2010, Drinking water quality in rural India.)

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CSMCRI solved these issues by developing an alternative two stage desalination process. Hence the present system of RO plants are emerged with filtering through sand, carbon, cotton and membrane technology, finally blended with minerals to utilise in a smaller units.

Reverse Osmosis System (R.O. System) - Process Flow Chart

The story of Gujarat:

The first plant was installed in Gujarat in the village of Mocha in 2000, used a single step Plant to desalinate brackish groundwater. The plant has been in operation since then, with an output of 1800 litres per hour and caters to the need of 2000 villagers. The installation cost of this Plant was around 12,000 US Dollars, and the product water cost was 0.90 US Dollars per thousand litres.

In rural Gujarat, RO technology has proved to be a boon for a number of households. Treatment plants with a capacity of 10 litres per hour to 6000 litres per hour, are supplying water to hundreds of villages, while individual plants with a capacity of less than 20 lph2, and medium plants with a size of 10 lph are supplying water at a much smaller scale. The large Plants have been installed with the support of affluent non-resident Indians, who setup the Plant for their native villages. As per Krishnan S. et al (2010), the outreach of treated water depends on the following:

i. Mode of ownership: Community owned plants were open for distribution of clean water

beyond the village it was meant to serve, while privately owned plants only catered to a

specific community.

ii. Cost of treated water: The price of treated water should be able to cover the costs of

maintaining the Plant and transportation costs.

iii. Local norms: Norms such as cross-subsidization for families that are unable to afford

regular prices, increased outreach

The reasons for the success of RO plants in Gujarat could be attributed to the following:

i. Poor quality of regular supplied water

2 Lph: Litres per hour

BORE WELL

Pressure Sand Filter

Carbon Filter

Micron Filter

R.O. System

U.V. System

Product Water

Dosing pumps for Alum

& Chlorine

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ii. Multi-purpose use of RO water

iii. Better taste of RO Water3

Gujarat was the first State in India in which community based RO Plants spread quickly, mainly due to donations made by Non-Resident Indians for achieving healthy lifestyle in their native villages. An estimated 325 RO Plants were functioning by 2010.

The plant at Obha village is run by the Pani Samiti4 (Water Committee) and is open to anybody buying water at Re. 0.25 per litre. The plant also supplies 1000 lpd to neighbouring villages, through a delivery system. The Pani Samiti identified 62 families that are below the poverty line and unable to purchase water. The Samiti decided to provide them water free of cost as the Plant makes enough surplus water.

At the same time, the Plant in Navsari was installed specifically for one community of 30 residents. The treated water is restricted to one community and sold at a highly subsidized price of Re. 0.11 per litre.

As studied in Gujarat, Plants have been functioning in 3 ways:

i. Purely business: these are business oriented Plants that supply water to rural and urban

areas. For example, Unjha.

ii. Purely community: these Plants are operated, managed and owned by the community. For

example, Manikpura.

iii. Exclusive: these are domestic Plants exclusively owned and managed by a single

household. These are also smaller in size and capacity.

But other than these, combinations of these models are also found, such as the community-business model and community-exclusive model. The former has a medium cost per litre and balances between wider reach outside and focused reach within the community, whereas the community exclusive model has a low to medium cost per litre, but a focused and limited reach to an exclusive community.

The paper concludes the need for focus on the following areas in order to expand RO Plants in other parts of India:

i. What is the technology required for specific areas

ii. Ensuring local institutions are strengthened for proper maintenance of the plant

iii. Maintaining a balance between cost recovery and community orientation so that both

sustainability and maximum outreach is achieved

iv. Proper disposal of effluent from Plant

The story of Rajasthan:

In the Kisari village of Rajasthan, the single step RO Plant improved the quality of drinking water manifold. Not only was there a drop in the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the water, but also, hardness of water, nitrogen content and turbidity were brought down. The number of ailments in that area has gone down significantly especially for school going children5.

The story of West Bengal:

3(Krishnan et.al, 2010, Reverse osmosis plants for rural water treatment in Gujarat) 4 Pani Samiti is synonymous to the water committee 5 (CSMCRI, 2008, Reverse osmosis: India)

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At the request of Public Health Engineering Department of West Bengal, an animal powered RO Plant unit was setup in Feb 2004 in North 24 Paraganas district, to treat saline pond water. It was reported that the unit has reduced salinity, iron and arsenic content of the water, making it safe to drink.

At the same time, a similar model used in Bhavnagar of Gujarat, showed the negative aspects of the animal powered RO Plants. Frictional energy caused by a wooden roller attached to the mechanical link, increased the load on the animals.

Animal -powered plants cost around 5000 US dollars for installation, producing waterat 1.20 US dollars per thousand litres, including the cost of feeding animals and operator expenses.

The paper talks about the initial problems faced by CSMCRI, such as:

i. Poor plant maintenance leading to frequent breakdowns

ii. Inadequate training of local operators

iii. Village politics, leading to change in the trained personnel with people chosen by local

politicians

iv. Lack of proper monitoring by Institute staff

v. Cynicism regarding the success of such a technology

vi. Lack of trust of people

vii. Need for financial support from government, local administration, and involvement of

village council6

From all of the above, it is clear that lessons from these experiences are very relevant to Gagillapur, located in Telangana. Given that the region is water scarce and in a peri-urban location, and given the widespread existence of private operators in the space, it is critical that the plant be community owned and operated, with a clear mandate to prioritise the supply of low cost water. It is also quite apparent that focusing on the issue of water would be a good entry point into the village.

Water scarcity issues of Gagillapur, Telangana

Gagillapur is surrounded by a number of industrial establishments and this makes it difficult to connect the image of a typical village environment with it. This is, however, increasingly the future of villages that surround large urban centres. Our experience in this village therefore is valuable for extrapolation (with suitable adaptation) to similar urban contexts.

When MAS conducted its first assessment, some of the important issues in the village were a lack of proper roads, housing, sanitation, safe drinking water, employment, etc. Due to severe droughts the ground water levels have drastically decreased, leading to a scarcity of safe drinking water and water for domestic consumption in the habitations.

In this context, the Reverse Osmosis Water Plant concept had been gaining popularity in villages of AP and Telangana where quality drinking water is not available to the common people. The Rural Water Supply Department has taken the initiative to promote and install RO plants in selected villages, to spread awareness on the importance of consuming clean and safe drinking water. Donors from different backgrounds have come forward to support the cause, in order to make clean and safe drinking water available to the public.

One such donor was Shakti Met-Dor, a Company that came forward to establish a water plant in the Main Village of Gagillapur, with the technical and operational support of Nandi Foundation in 2013.

6(CSMCRI, 2008, Reverse osmosis: India)

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The RO Plant was established in 2013, by Shakti Met-Dor and Nandi Foundation, opposite to the Gram Panchayat. The Plant was setup with the aim of making Clean Drinking water available for 250 Households within the vicinity of the Main Village. The Nandi Foundation had appointed an operator and successfully run the plant for a year and a half. However, with the groundwater depleting, the plant gradually became unviable since input water was the highest cost contributor. No measures were taken by Grama Panchayat to revive the Plant, and with time, its motors slowly got damaged, and the electricity connection was disconnected due to unpaid and pending bills.

Rationale behind reviving the RO Water Plant A needs assessment study was conducted in August 2015 by a team from MAS. One of the recurring problems identified was the scarcity of safe drinking water in the village. With the commencement of Mission Gagillapur project in January 2016, the issue was prioritised in the Gram Sabha and a request was made to revive the RO water plant, as the infrastructure already existed.

MAS agreed to revive the plant on the pre-condition that the Gram Panchayath would facilitate the operational aspects of the plant by providing a letter of undertaking to the Village Organisation for regular maintenance. The GP would not be interfering in the day to day maintenance of the water plant. The primary responsibility assigned to the Village Organisation7was to run the plant and supply product water to the villagers at an affordable price. This was to be further monitored by the Water and Sanitation Committee, one of the functional committees in the village, facilitated by MAS under the umbrella of the Village Development Committee. The VDC works under the guidance of Gram Panchayat.

The goal was to have the community take responsibility for the plant, so that the process would be community led. The main objective of this action was to promote human development, by ensuring the basic necessity of healthy living.MAS took up the issue in the meetings with the Village Development Committee, SHG members and Gram Panchayat.MAS began its strategic interventions to solve the problem of drinking water scarcity in Gagillapur by providing technical assistance to the VO.

Interventions taken up To resolve the issue and renovate the water plant, a number of steps were taken:

MAS approached a technician to assess the then current status of the plant and all necessary repairs were undertaken.

The carbon filter, sand filter, and other membranes of the Plant were replaced. About INR 150,000 was spent to revive the water plant and the financial assistance was given by Shakti-Hörmann Ltd.

In order to appoint a RO water plant operator, the MAS team discussed with the Village Development Committee8 and Village Organization (Neha Grama Paraspara Sahakara Sangam) to identify and appoint a suitable VO member for the post.

The ‘Any Time Water’ (ATW) Machine was installed to keep track of the water being dispensed and to maintain transparency in accounting.

7A Village Organization (VO) is a primary federation of Self-help groups of women, usually comprising of 8 SHGs, each of 10-15 members each. The role of a VO is to provide technical assistance to SHGs, solve problems, review their functioning, prepare plan of action, etc. 8Village Development Committee (VDC) is a voluntary association formed by the residents of the village for local administration and development of the village, under the Grama Jyothi Scheme.

RO plant after revival in Main Village

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On May 7th 2016, Mr. Martin Hörmann from Shakti Hörmann visited the village along with his colleagues, and inaugurated the RO water plant. A team from MAS was present along with the Sarpanch, MPTC, the then Executive Officer, four VDC members, VO leader and SHG members.

MAS facilitated the construction of the sump cum

harvesting structure in May, in consultation with the GP and VDC, for collection of the waste water, of 3000-4000 litres capacity, with an estimated cost of 30,000 INR. The waste water will go directly into the sump from the Plant, which once filled can be used for plantation and cleaning purposes by residents. On overflowing, this water will be soaked into the ground, to recharge ground water levels.

A sump was constructed by the GP for storage of raw water, with a capacity of 12000 litres, from the GP funds with an estimated cost of 100,000 INR in July, after much coordination between VDC and GP, facilitated by MAS and funded by Hörmann.

The residents can use the service depending on their preference, access, and location. In order to make it affordable for all, and to not lose buyers to private watersuppliers, a cost of 5 INR was charged for 20 litres of water cans, which was lesser than the rate at which the local private sellers made profit, i.e., 7 to 12 INR for 20 litres.

Management of the Plant Before declaring it open for all on June 15th, 2016, the responsible Village Organisation was oriented and trained on the operation of the water plant, maintenance, financial transactions, and ATW. The plant, once fully functional, was handed over to the Village Organization and was maintained by an appointed Plant Operator who was paid as per the income being made by the RO water plant. The Operator is available at the RO water plant for supervision, 7-10AMand 4-7 PM, all days of the week. The Operator has been recently replaced by another SHG member, who was oriented and placed from 17th February.

The VO had expressed their lack of expertise in managing the plant. Hence, after discussions with the GP and VDC, the VDC has agreed to take responsibility of the RO Plant and its operations through its water and sanitation committee.

Bottlenecks Encountered Since its inauguration, the Plant has encountered a number of challenges, which have been resolved with the support of the VDC and Gram Panchayath.

i. Limited cooperation of community: In the initial phases of Mission Gagillapur, the

residents and VDC members were suspicious of the benefits of the revival of the water

plant, as it had remained defunct for almost 2 years. The general concern was regarding

the quality of drinking water. The continuous efforts to build the confidence among the

Interior of the RO plant

RO plant inauguration

by Martin Hörmann

29 | P a g e

community by the MAS team, led to the community’s

cooperation and trust in the decision to revive the plant.

ii. Source of water: Input water was another problem in the

village, due to low groundwater levels. Water was being

supplied by tankers for the village. Initially, the Gram

Panchayath workers were hesitant to draw water from the

main storage sump, as they felt it might lead to some

confusion in supply of water and the transparency of water

availability. They suggested arranging a separate storage

facility for the raw water for the Plant. On taking this issue

up in the Gram Panchayath, the Sarpanch agreed to

construct a separate sump for the plant. After following it

up with the Gram Panchayath, the sump was constructed

with the storage capacity of 12000 litres over a period of three

months, financed by Shakti Hörmann.

iii. Incurring Losses: The Plant had to be dependent on water tankers

of 5000 litres each per day, as a source of raw water. This sometimes went up to two

tankers per day, with a monthly average of 20 tankers. Hence, the Plant was incurring a

loss. This issue was taken to the notice of the Sarpanch, Executive officer and the VDC.

One of the VDC members came forward to assist by giving an advance payment for the

tankers to support the plant.

iv. Village Politics: The Plant Operator (G. Lakshmi) is not fully satisfied with the present

honorarium of 1000 INR per month. The honorarium was to be fixed at an amount of INR

1000 on sales of 3000 cans on an average per month, which if crossed would be

calculated as INR 1 per can per month. As the plant is still in losses, and it will take some

time to breakeven, it is difficult to promise her an increase in salary immediately. Hence,

it requires constant consultation, encouragement and orientation from MAS team to

continue her services.

v. Electricity charges: A notice for pending arrears of the Electricity bill amounting to

34,000 INR was served by the Electricity Department. The Supply to the Plant was

disconnected. The MAS team approached GP and the district officials, requesting them to

solve this issue. A temporary solution was arranged to restore the electric line from the

GP source and the plant was functional again. The GP agreed to pay all pending arrears

on the condition that the plant would bear the charges from January 2017 onwards.

vi. Old Machinery: A recurring issue in Gagillapur is the operational aspect of the

waterplant. Because of the machinery and the pumps being old, they required constant

repairing. In order to overcome such mechanical challenges, new motors and pumps have

been procured and installed.

A boon for plant survival With the monsoon season being favourable, the ground water level increased enough for the adjacent GP bore well to be able to supply raw water for the Plant. After consultation with Panchayat Secretary and Gram Panchayath, the connection for raw water was setup from the GP Bore well on October 26th, 2016. Since then, the Plant has been drawing water from the GP bore well, free of cost. Going

Connection to GP

Bore well established

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forward, the plant is expected to draw input water from Mission Bhagiratha9 supply ensuring that there is a steady low cost input of raw water into the plant, as suggested by the VDC.

As decided in the water and sanitation committee meeting, from the month of January 2017, the honorarium for the Operator was increased to 2500 INR from 1000 INR per month.

Status of the Plant before Feb 2017 A comprehensive overview has been given below-

SL No

Month Number of cans sold per day( average)

Number of cards sold( in total)

Number of tankers purchased per month (Average)

1 June 60-70 175 cards sold

20 2 July 20 3 August 90 20 4 September 100 20 5 October 110 20

The loss being incurred per month was 5000 INR on an average. Since June, the total deficit amounted to around 22,000 INR as per accounts of the water plant. At present, having established the raw water source from the bore well, the over burden of having purchased 20 tankers at INR 750 each, amounting to INR 15,000, is expected to be covered by January 2017, other things remaining constant.

Improving the reach of safe drinking water In order to improve the performance of water plant, the VDC, through MAS facilitation had taken the decision to improve access to safe drinking water by an auto.

In a VDC Orientation Programme on 21st Jan 2017, a number of decisions were taken on the door to door delivery system of water from the Plant. It was decided to purchase an auto as an Entry Point Activity for improved distribution and outreach of clean and safe drinking water from RO Plant.

Door to door delivery system:

a. Assessed the feasibility to initiate the door to door delivery and its cost-effectiveness

b. Assessed the demand for drinking water in surrounding habitations and companies

c. Approached the donor for financial assistance and approval

d. Explored estimations for auto procurement, finalized and procured the auto

e. Handed over the auto to VDC after an inaugural event

f. Identified suitable persons who are having auto-rickshaws to engage them in doorstep

delivery or people who would be interested in investing in an auto, funded by one of

the SHGs as a mini enterprise under SHG Bank finance.

g. Water cards were printed and sold to consumers with a validity for 15 days

Supply of safe drinking water through an auto:

A detailed exercise was conducted on how to initiate and sustain. The Plant is to be managed by the water sub-committee and Sk.Yusaf, Treasurer of VDC. Monitoring of water supply and maintenance

9In 2015, the Telangana Chief Minister Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao renamed the Telangana Drinking Water Grid Project as Mission Bhagiratha. The main agenda is to provide best and healthy drinking water to rural and urban areas. The water grid project aims at reaching out drinking water supply to even remotest place in the State. The Water Grid scheme is intended to provide safe drinking water to every household across the State in the next 4 years.

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of auto is to be done by them. It was assumed that the Plant will supply 300 cards per day, where each 20 litre bubble is fixed at 7 INR for door delivery, out of which 4 INR will be paid for auto maintenance and 3 INR for the plant’s income. Besides the bubbles delivered by the auto, the plant is expected to produce 50 bubbles at the cost of 5 INR at the counter. Auto will be handed over to a driver identified by the sub-committee and the driver has to pay INR 25000/- as caution money. Current status of the Plants (as on 4th March 2017):

Sl. No

Details of income Number Amount Collected

1 Water cards sold to the customers 394 39400 2 Sales at the plant 77 385

Total 471 39785 # Details of Cans at the door delivery Number No. of Litres 1 Cans delivered through an auto 2076 41520 2 Delivered at Plant 77 1540

Total 2153 43060 # Details of payments Amount 1 Deposited in VDC Bank Account 10000 2 Purchase of materials 9500 3 Cash in hand of Treasurer (Sk.Yusuf) 10500 4 Cash at Plant site 385 5 Advance to Auto driver 10400

Total 39785

Voices of the stakeholders “The scarcity of water is the major problem in our village. In order to solve this issue the supply of water from tankers is the temporary solution, but there is an immediate need to initiate construction of Soak or recharge pits and rainwater harvesting structures to address the water problem of the community. With the RO Plant being revived, a number of families in the vicinity have been relieved of the issue of access to safe drinking water.”- Sanjeev

Reddy, (VDC President).

Conclusion The provision of safe drinking water is a milestone in the transformation procedure into a model village. It cuts across a number of aspects such as sanitation, health, community participation, involvement of SHGs, self-sustainability, etc. In the long run, this could turn into an entrepreneurial model for supplying water at an affordable price, with the Panchayat’s Support.

With the VDC slowly coming forward to take responsibilities, the outreach of clean drinking wateris expected to increase to other habitations of Gagillapur.

In addition, The RO water plant is a good case for Mission Gagillapur to learn about the challenges and dynamics of bringing together the community, the GP and a corporate funder together to create community infrastructure. Valuable lessons have been learnt from this experience. The importance of co-ownership, the absolute requirement of perseverance and patience while dealing with multiple stakeholders, the obvious challenges posed by different segments of the village- each with disparate agendas, the attention to detail required, the necessity of champions within institutions, the critical

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role played by transparency and an entrepreneurial model- all these lessons will be applicable to most initiatives being planned in Gagillapur as they are all expected to have a similar structure.

Operating Model: The cost of operating is recovered through the number of cards sold & bubbles distributed, as maintained by the sub-committee. Various trainings were given to the operator on maintenance of water plant, record keeping and fund management. Ownership: VDC appointed two members from the SHG community to operate the plant Water Price: (Rs. 5/20L) Water Source Challenge: Fluoride and salinity Type of Technology: Reverse Osmosis Capacity: 1,000 L/hr Key Achievements MAS has developed operational linkages with VDC and Gram Panchayat to mobilize required

infrastructure support Built necessary capacities over the operation and maintenance of the plant Developed systems to maintain the transparency, accountability and good governance. Strengthening the sub-committee of VDC to manage the plant with limited support from GP and

MAS Reliable operations with no major breakdown Plant operators are mainly women from SHGs Surplus amount is deposited in the bank under control of VDC EC, which will be used for repairing

& maintenance of the plant

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CASE STUDY ON EDUCATION

INTERVENTIONS

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In the larger context

In a series of articles published by The Hindu in Dec 2016, called “The Learning Deficit”, the primary focus was on exploring various facets of the crisis in primary education in India.

In the article on high drop-out rates in Primary school, the major causes identified have been poverty, accessibility and availability. Drop-out rates also vary vastly regionally. For instance, in AP, as per Educational Statistics 2013-14, the drop-out rate for secondary school was 26.83 per cent state wide, while Maoist insurgency affected areas of Kurnool had a higher drop-out rate of 4.02 per cent. In Telangana, the drop-out rate for primary school in 2013-14, was 7.95 per cent, which shows a start contrast to the drop-out rates of ST girls in Mahbubnagar district, which is 57.18 per cent.

Another article from this series talks about how migration of daily wage workers affects a child’s education. Migrant workers tend to relocate to native places during harvest season, which leads to the dropping out of children from their schools in order to shift with their families.

One article talks about how the absenteeism of government school teachers, extra duties, insufficient curricular materials impact the quality of education. Factors like “structural deficiencies” and “bureaucratic callousness” weaken the elementary education system.

The reason behind schools failing to foster knowledge among students is because of corruption, and faulty approaches. Methods of teaching have changed, with more focus on quick results leading to rote based learning system than actual learning level outcomes. Even the Right to Education Act prioritises the age of schooling as six, which ignores the impact of pre-school education on a child’s learning capabilities. Often appointment of less qualified teachers and not putting enough importance on adult literacy lowers the levels of learning outcomes.

At the same time, India has moved away from the rote learning technique, since the 2000s. The approach has become more activity oriented, including charts, curricular activities, writing and reading, etc. Learning Levels depend on pedagogy and assessment system. This approach has been widely followed by Tamil Nadu under ABL (Activity Based Learning).

In Rajasthan, the “Adarsh” or “ideal” schools are part of the State’s initiative to ensure that students have access to one institution that offers education from classes 1 to 12. Under this, primary and secondary schools were integrated into the same compound, in order to ensure equal access to infrastructure. This integration initiative has led to rationalisation of the number of schools in a particular area. The success of these schools in a way was able to indicate that the Government of Rajasthan has been able to improve inclusion outcomes without taking the path of privatisation. It has also lead to reduction in gender disparity in senior secondary grades.

With the introduction of the Right to Education Act in 2009, it was ensured that all children within the age group of 6 to 14 years have the right to free and compulsory education. But the implementation of the same has been an issue. The RTE promises equal right to education of certain standards to all students till the age of 14 years. But there is a huge difference between urban and rural education system, and also the kind of education received by the rich and poor.

Private schools have been on the rise, with much higher enrolment rates than that of government schools. India witnessed a steady growth in enrolment rates in government schools in 2008.The government achieved this through a supply side push creating a network through which students would be provided with classrooms, uniforms, textbooks, and other teaching materials, and teachers. While this approach helped in getting more children into school, the learning levels of children seemed to fall.

The private schools being equipped with better infrastructure, better communication in English, have been luring many parents to get their children enrolled in private schools. But the salary of teachers in

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private schools is much lesser than those in government school. The private schools often violate certain standards set by State Govt and department, as there is no common government body to evaluate them.

One of the most important challenges in Indian Education is the gender disparity. Drop-out rates in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, among girls are below the national average. Girls face discrimination on 2 levels, one from their parents when they send the boys to private school and girls to government schools, and also from the teachers, when they believe that boys learn faster than girls. There is a societal mindset that the girls have to get married so why waste money in their studies and keeping them limited to household activities.

The gap between drop-out rates among girls and boys, in the age group of 11-14, is the highest, as most girls are eased out to work at home or get married. A majority of the girls not in school belong to the lower castes, tribal groups and Muslims.

The way forward is to combine adult literacy and compulsory schooling for all students, especially from the backward classes of the community.10

The story of Gagillapur Gagillapur, being set in a peri-urban landscape, has both private as well as government schools within its vicinity. There are two private schools in the village, St. Ignatius School (Classes 1 to 10) and NSKK (Naveena Sanskara Kala Kendra) High School (Classes 1 to 10), in Church Gagillapur and Main Village respectively.

Saint Ignatius School has a total strength of 650 students, with 30 staff members, while NSKK has the strength of 750 students with 40 staff members.

While a certain section of the population is able to avail private schools, with an advance deposit of 3000 and 8000 INR during the time of admission, the marginalised sections of the society avail the facilities of the government schools.

The village has three primary government schools, in Main Village, Thanda and Church Gagillapur, and one High School in Main Village.

A total of 319 students go to Government schools as opposed to 1400 students in Private Schools. These 319 students primarily belong to marginalised groups in the village.

According to RTE guidelines, the school infrastructure should have an all-weather building, comprising of:

i. At least one class room for every teacher and an office cum store cum Headmaster’s room

ii. Barrier free access

iii. Separate toilets for boys and girls

10

All information in this section has been taken from the series of articles on education published by The Hindu, in December 2016.

SL NO.

SCHOOL STUDENTS TEACHERS

1 Primary School in Main Village 83 3 2 High School in Main Village 76 7 3 Primary School in Church Gagillapur 135 3 4 Primary School in Thanda 25 2

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iv. Safe and adequate drinking waterfacility to all children

v. A kitchen where mi- day meal is cooked in the school

vi. Playground

vii. Arrangements for securing school building by boundary wall or fencing

Very few of the government schools meet all requirements given by RTE. Hence, MAS with the support of Shakti Hörmann has been making efforts to make available the required resources for the students accessing education services in these schools.

Bottlenecks identified At the time of the Needs Based Assessment conducted in the village in 2015, the following intervention areas were identified:

i. Education Sub-Committee to be trained on their roles and responsibilities.

ii. Placement of teachers (Vidya Volunteers11) as per requirement (based on student – teacher

ratio).

iii. Training of Vidya Volunteers by St. Ignatius School teachers

iv. Community support in ensuring 100% enrolment, retention and attainment.

v. Ensure that Government provides necessary teaching learning materials to schools.

vi. Monitor the quality of education in private schools.

vii. Honorarium to teachers paid by the Village Development Committee.

On the basis of these gaps identified, a plan was formulated to improve the quality of education and learning outcomes in all the government schools of Gagilapur.

SL NO.

ACTIVITIES (2016-2020)

1 Training teachers and facilitate interactive session with professionals in School education

2 Arrange school bags and Shoes with 2 pair of socks to all Govt School going students

3 Celebrate school functions yearly twice 4 Arrange one day exposure visit to the teachers and students

5 Arrange basic infrastructure in Schools

6 Place four Vidya volunteers to ensure quality education to the children (ten months per year)

Education Interventions A number of interventions were taken up within the first year of operation of Mission Gagillapur, with the assistance of the Village Development Committee (VDC)12 formed.

11

This concept was introduced in the late 1990s in united Andhra Pradesh, to maintain standards of education with required qualifications on a monthly honorarium basis. The Telangana Government had decided to recruit Vidya Volunteers every year as process of recruitment of regular teachers is time consuming. These volunteers are to work in the existing vacancies of teachers, till regular teachers are recruited. 12

Village Development Committee (VDC) is a voluntary association formed by the residents of the village for local

administration and development of the village, under the Grama Jyothi Scheme. The VDC of Gagillapur has 23 members from all the five habitations in the village.

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They can be grouped under the following heads:

i. Enrolment and Attendance

ii. Learning Levels

iii. Infrastructure

iv. Governance

The approach followed by Mission Gagillapur in the last year has been to cater to demand from the community and build rapport. Having had some key systemic outcomes, we are now looking at building a comprehensive strategy in consultation with experts from the education sector as well as the community, the Government of Telangana and other stakeholders, for the next academic year.

i. Enrolment and Attendance

Baseline Survey:

A baseline survey was conducted in all the 5 habitations of Gagillapur, which captured the number of eligible children (18) who were not enrolled in school. With the second and third round of verification, this number dwindled down to zero, due to migration. One of Gagillapur’s biggest challenge is Migration (in and out), which makes it difficult to trace the number of children out of school and ensure their enrolment.

ii. Learning Levels

In order to improve quality of education and improve enrolment rates in the government schools, a number of interventions were taken up, through interaction with concerned stakeholders.

Improvement of teacher- student ratio in Primary school

The Main Village Primary school has total 83 students with 3 teachers. With the national teacher student ratio being 30:1, the school had a teacher- student ratio of 28:1. Two out of the three teachers were deputed to a different village, leading to a lower teacher student ratio in the school. Having identified this problem, it was further discussed with the Gram Panchayat and the VDC. With support from the MAS team, the two teachers returned to the school, restoring the teacher-student ratio.

Providing Education Volunteer in Primary School

In Church Gagillapur, the teacher student ratio is 45:1, far higher than the desired ratio. The recent increase in the enrolment of students has not been recorded. As a result of this, the official records show 100 students as the total strength, as against the actual 135. Without the government initiated rationalization of schools, the number of teachers cannot be increased.

This issue was discussed in the 5th VDC Meeting (6th August, 2016). MAS identified an Education Volunteer with prior experience, to serve as a Vidya Volunteer in the Primary school. The Volunteer has been

placed and working since September.

Remedial Classes for Class 10th students

Before Mission Gagillapur commenced, the previous year’s pass percentage of Class 10th students of the High School was zero. In view of this, it was decided to aim for 100% pass percentage for the nine students in class 10, and 50% with first class marks. Remedial Classes were started for the Class 10th students.

Remedial Classes initiated in High

School

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With the reference from the Mathematics teacher, a Volunteer was identified and placed, for Science and Maths classes. The remedial classes were started from 27th of October. The PO and the physical science teacher participated in the first class on mathematics and provided feedback to the volunteer for further improvement of teaching.

The Head Master (newly appointed Mandal Education Officer) has stalled the classes currently, as he

felt perturbed by the presence of MAS. This was followed up with the VDC members and Panchayat Secretary. But with constant pressure from our end, he has now instructed remedial

classes to be conducted by the teachers from the High School itself.

Distribution of snacks

In order to motivate the class 10th students, attending remedial classes for extended school hours, MAS team along with VDC decided to supply milk, bananas and biscuits for the students. A VDC member also supported this event by supplying milk for the 8 students.

This had to be unfortunately stalled as the Headmaster refused to give permission to continue.

Training session by VandeMataram Foundation

On 18th September, six students (from Classes 7 to 10) and three teachers from High School visited Vandemataram foundation at Kalvakurthy in Mahabubnagar, to be trained on mental mathematics skills, and "Bala sabha" to improve the capabilities of students and motivate them. The students returned to the school and practiced the “Bala sabha” in their school as well.

Celebration of Independence Day and Children’s Day

In order to motivate the students andinstil a sense of patriotism in them, the 15th August celebrations were celebrated in the High school and primary school in Church Gagillapur with the help of MAS. A meeting was held with the High School teachers on 05.08.2016 with Project Officers in order to identify some of the immediate needs of the school, such as geometry boxes, dictionaries, story books, colouring boxes, etc. These were incorporated while purchasing the prizes for the activities and games to be held on Independence Day. A number of sports activities andgames were organized, and all the prizes were distributed in both schools. The children were very excited and enthusiastic about taking part in the events.

The Project Officer also facilitated in providing prizes to the primary school in Thanda with the Sarpanch (Sriniva Naik) and to the primary school in the main village with the MPTC (Sunita Reddy)

On 14th November, in the celebration of Children’s day, the MAS team conducted Children’s Day Event in the Anganwadi Centre for 32 children, and in the Primary School of Church Gagillapur. A brief discussion was held on the importance of Children’s Day and the need to follow up on their aspirations. Games like kabaddi, duster game, musical chair etc. were organised and prizes distributed.

On 22nd December, MAS and the Primary School in Church Gagillapur celebrated National Mathematics Day, to mark the birthday of Srinivasa Ramanajunan, the Mathematical genius.

Students conducting

Bala Sabha in High School

Distribution of Prizes by

Panchayat Secretary in Primary School

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On 26th January, the VDC member (Sanjeev Reddy) celebrated Republic Day in the 2 Primary schools and one high school in Gagillapur (Main Village and Thanda), conducted various games and activities, followed by distribution of prizes.

Plantation Drive

Asa part of the larger Plantation drive conducted by the Telangana Government, plantation was conducted in the government schools on 11th July.The Project Officer participated in the "Telanganaku Harithaharam" program in the main Gagillapur village on avenue plantations along the roads and the government schools premises.

The tree guards have been fixed with the help of Innofab Private Limited.

Distribution of bags, shoes and socks

On 03.08.2016, MAS distributed school bags, one pair of shoes and two pair of socks to each student in the three Primary schools and one High school in Gagillapur. Quotations were prepared and finalized prior to that, and the shoe supplier (Globe shoes Company) accompanied the MAS team to the village.

The CEO of MAS (CS Reddy) attended the event, and held a brief round of discussion with the school children. He motivated the children to take part in the various development activities in the village, informed them about Mission Gagillapur, and interacted with them at length on their future plans. The Project Officer briefed the students, teachers and school management committee members on the activities taken up under Mission Gagillapur.

The others who were present at the distribution are:

o From Gagillapur- Sunitha and Sanjiv Reddy (MPTC and her

husband), Madhusudan Reddy (Panchayath Secretary),

Mahender (HM-ZPHS)

o From Shakti Hörmann-Ranga Rao (GM), MRK Raju(A.O), Krishnamurthy(HRM)

o From MAS-Venkatesulu (PM), Saroja(HRM), Madhuwanti (PO), Sujata (PO)

Meeting with Government Officials

In order to create synergy between the government and the Project, a number of meetings were conducted with the government officials, such as:

i. Mandal Education Officer

ii. District Education Officer

iii. Head Master and teachers of concerned schools

iv. School Management Committee

v. Panchayat Secretary and Sarpanch

vi. Project Director of DRDA

vii. Mandal Parishad Development Officer

Saplings being planted by High

school students

Distribution of bags, shoes and socks in all

Government schools

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In each meeting, the support to be expected from their end was discussed with respect to School Education.

Facilitation of health camps

In the third VDC Meeting, discussions were held on the need to conduct a health camp for children, especially on de-worming.

A deworming camp for school children was held on 10th August, in the Primary school of Church Gagillapur. Albandazole tablets were distributed to all the children.A second round of de-worming camp was held on 10th Feb in Church Gagillapur.

Facilitation of “Room to Read” Library

Room to Read13 is a Non-Profit Organization for improving literacy and gender equality in education in the developing world. In Gagillapur, “Room To Read” inaugurated school libraries in the primary schools of Main Village and Church Gagillapur.

The Project Officer participated in the inauguration of these two libraries. Two teachers from the two Primary Schools had attended the training program at “Room to Read” on how to manage school libraries in September.

Exposure visit to Sri Ram Foundation

The MAS team for Mission Gagillapur attended an exposure visit to the Sri Ram Foundation, in Gurgaon, who has been working in the Mewat region of Haryana on improvement of schools in 19 districts. The objective was to learn the methods being used by them to improve quality of education in the government schools, and map out possibilities of having similar activities in Gagillapur. One of the ideas that were appealing was that of School Twinning. Gaudium School in Hyderabad have been identified as a probable option for starting the process of school twinning with Schools in Gagillapur.

Cultural Day with Len MacDonald

Mr. Len MacDonald (Author of 3 books and volunteer from Canada) visited the Primary School of Church Gagillapur to engage with the children on 25th November. The kids were encouraged to sing songs and dance, to the tune of a guitar. He also interviewed the Headmaster which later went onto become a part of his collection of articles on his blog (www.week45.com).

Hyderabad Marathon

On 24th December, MAS facilitated the participation of 30 students from three schools of Gagilapur in the Hyderabad Marathon for mothers and children, held at Hitex city. Gaudium School supported this event by providing buses for transportation. The children were encouraged and energized by the event.

13

Room to Read is a global organization seeking to transform the lives of millions of children in the developing world by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Since 2000, Room to Read has impacted the lives of more than four million children in Asia and Africa and aims to reach 10 million children by 2015.

Room to Read Library

inaugurated in Primary school

Students at Hyderabad Marathon

http://www.week45.com/

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iii. Infrastructure

Levelling of playground in Primary school

The Primary school of Church Gagillapur used to be flooded due to watertankers coming in and the playground being uneven. The Headmaster along with the representation of MAS approached VDC. A resolution was passed, after which the Gram Panchayat levelled the playground as well as gave an

order to prohibit tankers from entering the school and flooding the playground.

Renovation of floor in Primary school

In the initial months of Mission Gagillapur, the Primary School in Church Gagillapur underwent renovation of floors and installation of grills, as represented by VDC and MAS. The constructions

were undertaken by Gram Panchayat.

Constructing of wall in Primary School

In order to prevent youth from using the school premises for consumption of alcohol, the back gate of

the school was sealed off and a wall constructed by the Gram Panchayat funds.

Appointment of a cleaning lady at Primary school

The Primary school lacked proper maintenance of toilets, due to a lack of proper cleaning. The person

was identified andplaced by MAS, being maintained by the School now.

Construction of a soak pit

A soak pit was constructed by the GP in Primary school of Church Gagillapur with the funds from the Gram Panchayat, for the waste watergenerated each day.

Provision of School benches

A need for providing school benches was identified in the seventh VDC Meeting. The Primary school in Church Gagillapur had no school benches, for 135 students. A letter from Gram Panchayat and Headmaster was forwarded to Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals, who was willing to provide 35 school benches for the Primary school under their CSR activities.

A total of 35 school benches have been handed over to the School, through collaborations with Innofab and Aurobindo.

Wall writings on key issues

In order to spread awareness regarding the Mission Gagillapur, government entitlements and on key issues like sanitation, health, education and personal hygiene practices, in the Primary school.

Installation of grills in High School

Measurements were given to Innofab to supply grills for the high school, to avoid the continuous disturbance by local youth in the High School.

The grills have been supplied to the school. The responsibility for fixing the grills has been taken up by the VDC Chair Person, Mr. Sanjeev Reddy.

Donation of Speakers to Primary School

School benches provided to

Primary School

Wall writings done in

High school

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A donation (worth 15,000 INR) was received to provide speaker with Microphones to the Primary school so that the students are able to celebrate the cultural events in a much more organized manner. An inaugural event was held in which the speakers were donated to the Primary School in Church Gagillapur, by the MLA on 11th Feb 2017.

iv. Governance:

Election of School Management Committee

As a part of Right to Education (RTE), every school must have a School Management Committee (SMC) which will help in actualizing the goals of the RTE. The key functions of the SMC are:

o Making a school development plan as per the RTE

guidelines

o Management of the school

o Supervising and supporting implementation of the Plan.

o Supervision/monitoring of finance, management, academic progress,

distribution of entitlements, and other functions.

o Ensuring accountability and transparency in the system through social auditing

o Keeping proper accounts of the fund available and sharing its deployment and utilization with

the Gram Sabha

o Creating and maintaining educational database

o Coordinating with local authority and generating funds from other sources for school

development

o Monitoring academic progress of the school

o Instituting social audit mechanism and processes to bring transparency in the system and

ensure universal participation

The SMC should have 27 members, out of which 24 members are parents of the students; one will be the elected representative, one member from the Mahila Samakhyas of the village concerned, and the Headmaster/ Headmistress who shall be the convener of the committee. This committee is reconstituted every two years.

In Gagillapur, the MAS Project Officer had participated in the election process of the school management committee in the high school and the primary school of church Gagillapur. He also briefly oriented them on the role and importance of parents in providing quality education to the children and the need to work in coordination with the headmaster of the school.

Challenges Faced The expectations of Government teachers in terms of support from MAS are heavily inclined towards infrastructural improvements, instead of improvement in learning levels. This leads to a mismatch in community expectation levels and cooperation.

The Headmaster after being elected as the Mandal Education Officer, have not been cooperative with MAS activities, and stalled the Remedial Classes, and even prevented MAS team members from entering the school premises.

The Teachers and Head Masters are more inclined towards infrastructural improvements in the school, and not improvement in learning outcomes.

The Church Gagillapur Primary school is in need of a waterconnection for cleaning and washing purposes, which the Gram Panchayat had promised to provide.

Election of SMC in High School

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Way Forward In order to identify gaps and intervention points, a strategy paper is being formulated, which will help in clarifying what the future interventions are for the village of Gagillapur.

To identify gaps and bottlenecks, it was decided to seek the support of Education Experts, who shall visit all education institutions in Gagillapur, take stock of existing situation with respect to enrolment, infrastructure, learning levels and governance. MV Foundation14 has been identified as the supporting agency, for this exercise.

14

The Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF) is an Indian non-government organisation established in 1981as a research institution on issues relating to social transformation. The Foundation works to build the capacities of community in rural and urban areas for abolition of child labour by universalizing social education, using an “area-based” approach instead of a target-based approach, that concentrates on protecting the rights of every children and also ensures that all of them attend full-time formal education.

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ANALYSIS OF LIVELIHOOD

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In the larger context With rapid globalization, the need for highly skilled workforce in both the developing and developed countries has grown. In the Indian context, skill development is critical from both socio-economic and demographic point of view. In a study conducted in 2015, an assessment was made for the workforce within the age group of 15-59 years, with respect to general education and vocational training. It was found that 38% of workforce is not literate, 25% have below primary or up to primary level of education, and remaining 36% has an education level of middle and higher level, and only 10% being vocationally trained. 15

The study goes onto identify the challenges being faced by the Government’s skill development initiatives in India, and how they can be resolved.

i. Demand and Supply Mismatch of workforce: The skill development initiatives need to be

more people-centric, coordinated with demand and supply scenes, adjusted as per changes

in supply of labor.

ii. Geographical Problem: With the labor market being differently located, the outreach of

the people for skills in India are uneven. States with higher economic growth rates have

more new jobs, and lower rate of labor force and vice versa. Majority of formal

institutions are located in urban areas, which also adds to the disparity in skilled labor

force. In order to deal with this issue, the government should set up more standardized

skill based institutions or centers across the country, especially in backward areas.

iii. Low Educational Attainment: In spite of high enrollment rates, some regions still lag

behind in terms of accessibility of education and skills. Gender disparity, accessibility for

disadvantaged groups, poor quality of education, obsolete curriculum, etc. In order to

solve this problem, the educational curriculum at all levels need to be updated with skill

developmental programs, having more of practical than theoretical, so that students are

able to imbibe the necessary job skills.

iv. Vocational Training: Skills are being widely recognized as the important lever for

growth. Vocational training needs to be strengthened as a viable alternative to formal

education. Vocational training is located in urban areas and mainly for educated youth.

Workers in unorganized sector do not get these trainings, and the gap in employability

increases. Hence, a scalable training institute with proper awareness generation programs

is required.

v. Skill Development for women: Women constitute a smaller share of the workforce.

Moreover, women are in the unorganized sector with low paid jobs and without security

benefits. More women specific policies are required in order to improve their

participation in the market.

vi. Private sector participation: The private sector is not adequately involved in curriculum

development, and policy formulation. Hence, a strong policy measure and operational

linkage is required to improve quality and relevance of training.

vii. Placement linked challenge: A major problem in Indian context is the gap between

education and placement of trained workforce. To achieve this, India needs a flexible

education system and a highly efficient skill development system.

viii. Multiplicity of Institutional framework: With a large number of skill development

institutions setup over the last few years, the result has become further fragmented, with

limited impact, due to overlapping of institutions. It is necessary to introduce integrated

15

V. Saini (April 2015) Skill development in India: Need, challenges and ways forward. Abhinav National Monthly Referred Journal of Research in Arts and Education. Vol 4, Issue 4.

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reforms through nodal bodies, to govern and coordinate with various skill development

and policy making initiatives.

ix. Informal and formal sector skill gap: There is considerable gap in terms of skilled

workforce between the formal and informal sector. A large section of the workforce gets

deprived of formal skill development. An integrated approach is required that enhances

labor quality while maintaining a balance with the demand and affordability of labor

markets.

x. Infrastructure challenge: Often due to lack of proper infrastructure, the efficiency of

training provided to aspirants becomes a challenge, especially n semi-urban and rural

areas.

xi. Training of trainers: The absence of trained trainers is another bottleneck that has yet to

be solved. The government should focus on providing more efficient training centers for

the trainers.

xii. Lack of labor market information system: The absence of labor market information

system, results in poor linkage between skill development and employability. A

consistent MIS is required which will ensure timely provision of all types of information

to stakeholders which will help in systematic planning for skill development.

The government of Telangana initiated capacity building programs for empowering the youth in the state, through quality training and mentoring. The Telangana Jagruthi mission is in line with the National Skill Development Corporation of India. Telangana Jagruthi has partnered with a number of companies who will recruit the students after completion of their training. They trained 3553 youth in 2015-16, out of which 1500 were placed.

Hence, the first step is to take the initiative to undergo skill training and development, which by itself is not considered a prestigious action. In the case of Gagillapur, there is a huge gap between the demand and the supply side of employment. The demand from the youth is low, while job opportunities are available.

The story of Gagillapur Mission Gagillapur, among other things, aims at improving unemployment through skill development and trainings. Gagillapur, being a semi-urban landscape, has high unemployment in the age group of 15 and 60 years.

Within the first six months of its operation (in May), a skill development drive was conducted, in which a total of 150 unemployed youth were identified, with different sets of skills and interests.

On 12th May, the Project Director of District Rural Development Agencies visited Gagillapur and attended the VO General Body meeting.

He ensured support in three areas:

-Youth training and placements and skill development,

-Social action Committee and

- The Literacy Program.

On 14th May, the Jobs District Manager (JDM) from DRDA visited the VDC meeting to initiate the identification process. This was done with the help of an intern from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad.

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On 20th May, the identified youths were counselled and on 21st May, 13 were placed at the National Academy of Construction in Madhapur (Hyderabad), the details are given as follows:

Sl No.

Skill Identified Number of Youth Identified for training

Training Institute Youth still continuing

1 Plumbing and Sanitation 5 NAC (National Academy of Construction in Hyderabad)

2

2 Painting and Decoration 5 NAC (National Academy of Construction in Hyderabad)

3 Electrical and House wiring 3 NAC (National Academy of Construction in Hyderabad)

4 Communication and Soft skills

15 Chilkuru, Mahila Prangam

3

5 Computer hardware and Tally 6 Sri Ramananda Tirtha Rural Institute in Hyderabad.

Did not go

6 Mobile repairing and Web designing

6 HR Chamvar in Ghatkesar

Did not go

Other than these two people have been placed at Muthoot Finance with a salary of Rupees 12,000 per month. Another 20 people have been identified with existing skills set, and are being referred to surrounding companies by the JDM from DRDA.

With more and more cross-verification and follow up, the number that was 150 dwindled down to 4. This shows the mismatched expectations of the youth. With low skill sets they have high salary expectations, unwillingness to do physically challenging jobs in tough environments. Innofab Pvt. Ltd had agreed to offer work to 100 people from the village, yet nobody was interested to come forward for the same. Hence, any fresh intervention for the unemployed youth will have to be initiated after thorough discussions with the youth and other stakeholders.

Livelihood Assessment As participation and interest levels of the youth were low, a second round of livelihood assessment was done in January.

In order to train the unemployed women and men in the village of Gagillapur in certain skill sets, it was necessary to map their needs and assess their existing skill sets.

Keeping this in view, a livelihood needs’ assessment was conducted on 4thand 5th January, 2017. A total of 38 members participated in the activity. Majority of the women who had registered at the CMRC, have been residents of Gagillapur for the past three years. Only one out of the 38, is below the age of 20, while only two are above the age of 40. A total of 25 members are in the age of 21-30 years and a total of 10 members are in the age of 31-40.

About 30% (13) of the members are illiterate, 20 members studied till 10thand inter and only five members have a graduation degree. 23 households have secured employment for their spouses in the

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companies, 4 households depend on daily wage employment and about 11 households are self-employed.

About 12 households earn less than 10,000 INR per month and 20 households have a monthly income of 10,000-20,000 INR per month and the remaining have more than 20,000 INR per month. About 23 households expressed that their present household income is sufficient to maintain their household expenses. Only 10 members are part of SHG institutions and 25 members don’t have bank accounts.

About 34 members are interested in tailoring and fashion designing within the village. All these are willing to avail the livelihood options after completion of their training on tailoring. One postgraduate member is interested in Tally, while three others wish to start their own businesses by availing any financial assistance.

Analysis of Households

After the assessment was done, a majority of women had expressed interest in learning tailoring. It was asserted by MAS, that the decision to provide training on tailoring will only act as a skill up-gradation that may or may not result in employment. With continuous batches of women being trained in tailoring every month, it would be difficult for MAS to guarantee placements.

The women were willing to take up loans for purchase of a machine after they complete their training, to setup their own business. They also believed that demand will be generated in Gagillapur. For example, the requirement of worker uniforms in the surrounding companies. They would also be able to reduce costs by stitching clothes for themselves and their families.

For the upcoming two months, it was decided to concentrate on the people interested in Tailoring and Fashion Designing, as the total number is 34.

It was decided after discussion with VDC and Gram Panchayat, to setup a centre for tailoring in the CMRC, which will act as one of the Entry Point Activities.

Establishing a Tailoring Centre for women

Objective: To ensure livelihood opportunities for the unemployed women enrolled in CMRC Strategy:

i. To map the number of women interested in Tailoring activities ii. Procure sewing machines for training purpose iii. Identify an instructor iv. Prepare a plan of schedule for trainings and slots for the identified women v. Ensure the women have to attend regularly to learn the tailoring skills vi. Prepare the trained women to get start the activity vii. Explore the linkage options with existing financial sources for purchase of sewing

machines Rationale: A livelihood drive and assessment was made for all unemployed women in Gagillapur. It was noticed that some had partial training in tailoring, while others were interested in learning the same. Hence, in order to empower the women by providing training that would help them in establishing a source of income, it was decided to setup a tailoring centre, with an instructor, for supporting the unemployed women.

Collaboration with USHA International: A meeting was held with USHA Internationals, the leading manufacturer of sewing machines, in order to negotiate the prices of the machines. TheCSR wing of USHA agreed to supply the machines at less than the market price and also extend monitoring support for the centre along with completion

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certificates to the trainees, if the NGO registered accreditation with USHA international. After considering the facts and benefits, MAS decided to complete accreditation with USHA international. The registration charges were INR 3000, which is a one-time payment and INR 1000 as renewal charges per year. For the individual certification,each member has to pay INR300 for completion letter and a trainee certificate.

On the advice of USHA Company, the machines are delivered from M/S Prince Sewing Machines, Cross roads, Balanagar at the price agreed.

Way Forward: i. Encourage the trained women to practice entrepreneurial activities on their own. ii. Approach Banks or Stree Nidhi for financial assistance in purchasing of machines. iii. Partner with the companies to link them to the trained women, as per their garment

requirements. iv. Explore market linkages and possibilities of setting up an urban market for the women

who have completed the training.

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ENTITLEMENTS

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In the larger context One of the many ways of helping people to come out of poverty is to provide them access to what they are already entitled to. Government Schemes have quite an outreach and the capacity of pulling people out of abject poverty. But these welfare programmes can often be underutilised because of lack of awareness, complicated procedures, lack of motivation, etc.

One among the five strategic Intervention Areas was improving access of thepoor and marginalized to government schemes. In the first year, the objective was to saturate the village of Gagillapur with all possible government schemes and programs- working to bring what were already meant to be brought in into the village.

Learning from Other states In a World Bank project of 35 Million US Dollars, the Government of Madhya Pradesh adopted the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) in 2010, with the objective of improving access to public services. In 2011, a Public Service Management Department was created. The Act basically sets timeline for delivery of services, an appellate structure if government officials fail to meet the deadlines, and imposition of penalties in the case of a delay.

Under this, “kiosks” or LokSewaKendras (LSK) were provided, that acted as a one stop shop for multiple government services, one in each block. These kiosks are operated under a public-private partnership.

Benefits of PSGA:

i. Reducing transaction costs ii. Speeding up service delivery iii. Improving accountability of public officials iv. Clearer eligibility criteria v. Adherence to timelines vi. Computerized online applications

In spite of the positive aspects, PSGA was not without its set of challenges:

i. Awareness among citizens about their rights with respect to public services remained low ii. Lack of trained personnel to operate LSKs iii. Small proportion of rejected applications go for first and second appeal

It was found that despite availability of services like caste certificates, BPL cards, ration cards, adhaar cards, pension and social schemes, the usage rates of LSKs were quite low by STs, SCs, and women.

Keeping this in view, the Government’s 2018 Vision document emphasizes on efficient government services as the driving force for public policies, with inclusiveness, simplicity and accountability. This project is expected to improve access to PGSA services by citizens of Madhya Pradesh, especially for under-represented groups, with the World Bank’s support.

Key outcomes:

i. Improved access to PSGA services by citizens of MP ii. Improved access to PSGA services by under-represented groups

The indicators for this project are as follows:

i. Citizens accessing PSGA services ii. Women/ Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes accessing the PSGA services

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Beginning with Madhya Pradesh, the Government of India have enacted laws in Bihar, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other states, the Right to Public Services Act, the guaranteed time bound delivery of selected services to the citizens.

In each of the states, the number of services being catered to is different. These have been done keeping in mind the following aspects:

i. Levels of simplicity in definition of service and delivery of the same ii. Strength of existing processes of service delivery iii. The local demand from citizens for particular services iv. Willingness of various departments to include some of their services under the guarantee

legislations

In MP, the services were demand driven, and excluded those that fell under the purview of two or more departments. While in UP, only limited number of departments have opted for the service guarantee. Bihar followed the demand driven approach too but did not notify some of the services that were already covered by other acts.

As MP paved the way for this Intervention, we will look at the Nodal Departments, procedures for access to services, and how it maintained its timeliness, transparency and accountability, alongwith the challenges faced, with respect to the same.

Implementation Structures:

With the creation of The Public Service Management department, within a year, the kiosks or LSKs were established at the block level for single window delivery of services, for those under the PSGA as well as those not covered by the Act. The process begins with a citizen purchasing an application form, with a token having a number, fills out the form, attaches necessary documents, gets it verified, and submits the form. Separate counters are installed for each step.

LSKs are to be established in block headquarters as well as urban areas. Online applications will also be received with hard copies and scanned documents.

In the Bhopal Collectorate, most of the services were delivered on time or before. Upto Jan 2012, almost 87 lakh applications have been received and a total of 86.98 lakh disposed. Similarly, in UP upto Nov 2011, 70 lakh applications were received and 66 lakhs disposed.

It was realised that one of the crucial aspects of ensuring timely service delivery is process simplification and reduction in time for delivery of services. One of the innovations in process to ensure timely delivery is that SMS is used for sending reminders to designate officials about pending applications and remaining days.

The Government of MP is also focusing on demystifying language and information for both officials and citizens, which would increase citizen centricity of delivery.

Challenges faced:

i. Infrastructure: Applications had to be manually entered into the computer after submission on paper. This led to wastage of time and duplication of effort, due to limited capacity of officials as well as citizens, leading to delay in service delivery.

ii. Public awareness: An important part of this project is to educate the citizens on the guarantees and how to utilize the appeal process. One of the measures to achieve this was through display of information on notice boards.

MP Government undertook IEC campaigns to educate the masses, conducted Gram

Sabhas, Lokseva week andLokseva days, etc.

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iii. Eligibility: Simply knowing their rights is not enough. The citizens must know content of the service, eligibility, process and cost of accessing, process of approval, delivery and maintenance. Often citizens cannot access certain services because they are unable to produce evidence of being eligible for the same.

It was noticed that there have been fewer appeals to legal rights than those legally provided for, which would mean that citizens would prefer having services delivered, even if that is delayed, instead of taking legal recourse.

For punishments and rewards, there are two approaches followed. The first is a penalty centred one for erring officials and compensating citizens. The second approach has relatively minor penalty amounts, with no citizen compensation, and incentives for government officials delivering services well.

In order to have trained personnel at the LSKs, in MP the first round of training was done through Master trainers, after which it was followed in a cascading mode.

In the context of Gagillapur:It is clear that in order to ensure a better saturation of entitlements in

Gagillapur, we need to identify a Village Level Entrepreneur for operating entitlements related kiosks

similar to LSKs.

In Gagillapur, we have a Community Resource Person doing similar work, but for the basic

entitlements that can be covered in the immediate term. For the medium term, we are working with

beneficiaries and other departments to ensure supporting documents etc. are provided. In the long

term, we seek to work to improve capacities of the VLE so that she can handle entitlements related

work for the community.

Hence, the lessons that Gagillapur can take from MP are as follows:

- the need to provide awareness to citizens and educate them on various services,

- the processes involved in acquiring various relevant documents

- cooperation of Government officials at all levels- block, district and village

- need to have effective monitoring mechanisms

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Baseline survey

A baseline survey was conducted for all the households in Gagillapur, to know

the needs of the community & the entitlements of the village.

The eligibility criterion for all welfare schemes was fed into the

questionnaire, to be able to identify the eligible beneficiaries for the

entitlements.

After the collection of the data, the data was entered & analysed, in order

to get a sense of the entitlements of the community.

Identification of entitlements of the

Steps taken under Mission GagillapurThe steps taken are summarized as below:

i. Entitlements provided by the a. Ration Cards:These

and rice) and fuel (LPG and kerosene). They provide proof of identity and a connection with government databases for the marginalized.

b. Aadhar Cards: Aadhar cardIdentification Authority of Indialinked to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other GovNon-Governmen

c. Schemes for speciallynumber of schemes have been introduced by the government, such as assistance in purchase of Aids/ appliances, scholarships, training schem

ii. Bank accounts for allfinancial inclusion. It will allow the marginalized to have access to financial services like credit, insurance, savings, pension, etc.

iii. Education Entitlements:following two were considered as entry point activitiesa. 100% enrolment of children in schools

not get enrolled in government education is to ensure that all eligible children are enrolled for school education.

b. Remedial Classes for 10grade students, remedial classes are to beexams, by the school teachers on subjects that the students are weak in.

iv. Schemes for women headed householdslesser than men, which might lead to difficulty in supportinhave a male earning member. Hence, such households can be supported in terms of livelihood opportunities.

Identification of entitlements of the

community

The identified entitlements can be divided into

community level, household level, individual level. Focus will be on the individual &

household level entitlements.

Once the data was analysed, a list of entitlements was

finalized for Gagillapur, on the basis of the data

collected

Cross Verification of Identified

Beneficiaries

A cross verification of the eligible beneficiaries was done,

after which it was found out that a number of the

beneficiaries were migrants from various places all over

parts of India. Hence the migrants were removed to

arrive at a second list of beneficiaries.

After meetings with Executive Officer, a list of all documents necessary was made. A third

round of verification was done to make a list of all the

documents available with each beneficiary. This list was even shorter than before, as many people had moved away from

the location while some refused to share documents,

and some did not have necessary documents.

under Mission Gagillapur summarized as below:

The objective of this list was to ensure the following entitlements to eligible beneficiaries:

rovided by the Government These cards are primarily used to purchase subsidized foodstuffs (wheat

and rice) and fuel (LPG and kerosene). They provide proof of identity and a connection with government databases for the marginalized.

Aadhar card is a 12-digit unique identity number issued by theIdentification Authority of Indiato each resident. The Aadhar number can also be linked to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other Gov

ernment services. It lowers the risk of fake ID proofs. Schemes for specially-able Persons: In order to assist differently number of schemes have been introduced by the government, such as assistance in purchase of Aids/ appliances, scholarships, training schemes, health insurance etc.

Bank accounts for all: Bank accounts are an important asset to be held by all to ensure financial inclusion. It will allow the marginalized to have access to financial services like credit, insurance, savings, pension, etc. Education Entitlements: In order to ensure universal education for all children, the following two were considered as entry point activities-

100% enrolment of children in schools- Often due to lack of awareness, children do not get enrolled in government schools. One of the ways to ensure universal education is to ensure that all eligible children are enrolled for school education.Remedial Classes for 10th Grade Students in ZillaParishad High Schoolgrade students, remedial classes are to be conducted 4-5 months prior to their final exams, by the school teachers on subjects that the students are weak in.

Schemes for women headed households: Employment opportunities for women are far lesser than men, which might lead to difficulty in supporting a household, which does not have a male earning member. Hence, such households can be supported in terms of livelihood opportunities.

eligible beneficiaries was done, after which it was found out

beneficiaries were migrants from various places all over

After meetings with Executive Officer, a list of all documents necessary was made. A third

round of verification was done

documents available with each beneficiary. This list was even shorter than before, as many people had moved away from

refused to share documents,

Gathering of documents & Passing

of Resolution

In order to sanction the entitlements, the documents of the beneficiaries needed to

be forwarded through the Gram Panchayat & VDC to the

concerned officials.

The beneficiaries with all the neccessary documents were finalized.

Once the documents are collected from them, a resolution needs to be

passed by the VDC, which will be then forwarded to the Gram Panchayat. this

resolution with the list will be finally submitted to the concerned government department for

sanctioning of schemes.

The MAS team will follow up with concerned government officials and have periodical

follow ups on the entitlement list with the Government

Officials.

are primarily used to purchase subsidized foodstuffs (wheat and rice) and fuel (LPG and kerosene). They provide proof of identity and a

digit unique identity number issued by the Unique r number can also be

linked to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other Government and

Persons: In order to assist differently able persons, a number of schemes have been introduced by the government, such as assistance in

es, health insurance etc. : Bank accounts are an important asset to be held by all to ensure

financial inclusion. It will allow the marginalized to have access to financial services like

In order to ensure universal education for all children, the

Often due to lack of awareness, children do schools. One of the ways to ensure universal

education is to ensure that all eligible children are enrolled for school education. Grade Students in ZillaParishad High School- For all 10th

5 months prior to their final exams, by the school teachers on subjects that the students are weak in.

: Employment opportunities for women are far g a household, which does not

have a male earning member. Hence, such households can be supported in terms of

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v. Widow pensions: The Government offers assistance to widows in the form of financial assistance for their sustenance.

vi. Open Defecation Free village: One of the goals is to achieve Open defecation free Gagillapur by March 2017, which would include individual household latrines, behavioral change, Excreta free open spaces, excreta free hands, sustenance of ODF status, durability and maintenance of latrines, availability of hand-washing stations.

vii. Oldage pension:The Government offers assistance to elderly people in the form of financial and social assistance for their sustenance.

viii. Health Entitlements: Due to lack of proper monitoring, the anganwadi centres do not provide sufficient nutrients to the mothers and children. Hence, the health entitlements identified are as follows- a. Delivery of Nutritious daily meal, Iron Folic Acid Tablets, Tetanus injections,

Monthly Growth Monitoring, Antenatal Checkups for Pregnant and Lactating women registered under anganwadi centre

b. To ensure the delivery of take home rations, daily meals, Vitamin A supplementation, Monthly growth monitoring, Immunization, General health checkups, referral services for malnourished children, two nutritional health days every month for Children registered under anganwadi centre

c. 100% immunization of children d. Sanitation and personal Hygiene for Adolescent girls

ix. Employment Entitlements: With a number of youths being unemployed in the village, a large amount of human resource is waste, hence the following entitlements are to be ensured- a. Skill Development Trainings for unemployed youth in the village b. Livelihood opportunities for unemployed women of the village

Challenges Faced Although the process of saturation of government schemes may seem like a straight cut path, we were faced with a series of challenges due to the heterogeneous nature of Gagillapur.

i. Illegal land deeds of 214 Gagillapur: Due to high rates of migration, Rajeevgandhinagar is filled with illegal residents, who don’t have legal land deeds. This makes saturation of entitlements difficult to achieve.

ii. Lack of Support from Elected body of Gagillapur Gram Panchayat: Due to difference in expectation settings, the VDC and Gram Panchayat feel are making slow progress in building rapport with the MAS team. Hence, the level of support extended is less.

iii. Unwillingness of the beneficiaries to share the documents: Due to lack of trust, some community members are unwilling to share relevant documents.

iv. Unavailability of relevant documents: The migrants / rented households often do not have the relevant documents for accessing the benefits, which makes it difficult to ensure saturation of schemes.

v. High migration rate of Gagillapur: Due to high migration rates, the list of beneficiaries needs to be cross-checked at intervals to be able to arrive at a final list of beneficiaries.

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Current status After three rounds of verification, the status of all the beneficiaries has been compiled in the table below:

Government Entitlements:

SL NO

Entitlements

Original Number

After Second Verification

Number of applications forwarded to GP

Number of Applications accepted by GP

Total Current Status

1 Aadhar Card

27 4 3 1 1 Lack of proper documents. Beneficiaries have approached Meeseva16 centre for registration.

2 Ration Card

173 51 52 52 52 Submitted to EO. EO has forwarded these documents to revenue department.

3 Specially Abled Persons

19 6 3 0 0 Requires Sadarem17 Certificate.

4 Households requiring bank accounts

196 15 7 5 69 Due to the effect of demonetization, the demand for bank accounts have increased and about 69 online applications have been processed to the bank through the CMRC. It is upto the bank to open the accounts now.

5 Widow Pension

36 7 3 1 1 Remaining two requires husband’s death certificate from native village. The other two applications have been moved under women headed households and accepted by GP.

6 Households without toilets

93 13 3 1 1 Remaining two was found to be within the same premises with a toilet already

16

Meeseva: It is a good governance initiative that facilitates single entry portal for a range of government services. The objective of MeeSeva is to provide smart, citizen centric, ethical, efficient and effective governance facilitated by technology. 17 Sadarem: Software for assessment of Disabled for Access Rehabilitation and Empowerment, is an initiative to create a web enabled system for access, rehabilitation and empowerment, for Persons with Disabilities.

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existing.Hence, they are not eligible as per the guidelines

7 Oldage Pension

48 6 2 1 1 One was rejected as beneficiary was below 65 years of age

8 Women Headed Households

69 11 3 3+2 5 Submitted to GP, in addition with the previous two from the widow pension category.

TOTAL 52 (ration cards) +14 (individual entitlements) + 69 (bank accounts)

Health Entitlements:

Number of Pregnant women 13 Number of Lactating women 18 Number of Children (7 months to 3 years of age) 83

Mission Gagillapur is going to aim to facilitate these 66 beneficiaries and enable them to get their entitlements by 2017 February. Other issues like lack of relevant documents, lack of land entitlements, migration, etc, will be dealt with in the next financial year.

Note: The Health Entitlements are subject to change as interventions in both fields are ongoing at the moment.

Conclusion In Mission Gagillapur, the process of ensuring services to citizens has just been initiated, with a handful of application of beneficiaries who have all necessary documents. The initial numbers identified were huge, but after various rounds of cross-verification the numbers of actual beneficiaries eligible for submission of applications dwindled down to very few.

We are working on immediate household level entitlements at the moment. For the longer term, we

plan on identifying and capacitating a community resource person, who will take up the task of

ensuring entitlements at a much larger scale.

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ENTRY POINT ACTIVITIES

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In the larger context Due to the difference in expectations of the community, it was decided to initiate some Entry Point Activities through Project funds with the prior intimation to and approval from the donor agency. In order to involve other stakeholders, it was decided to seek the cooperation of the companies established in and around Gagillapur, to bring in some visible changes.

The ultimate goal is to make Gagillapur a model village, through a sustainable and community led development process.

Importance of Entry Point Activities In the first year of operation, Mission Gagillapur project concentrated on rapport building, community mobilization, formation of village level institutions, meeting with concerned government officials, etc. We have established the village level institutions (VDC, FC, Habitation Level Committees, and Mothers’ Committee) and streamlined the SHG institutions in the village.

With the completion of a year, it was anonymously felt to address some of the aspirations of community:

i. Satisfy Community Expectations: After a series of interactions done with various

stakeholders, such as District Collector, Gram Panchayath, Executive Officer, Village

Development Committee and Shakti Hörmann, it was decided to bring in some visible

changes, keeping in view the expectations of the community. This would lead to an

increase in their participation levels and encourage them to cooperate with Mission

Gagillapur.

ii. Bring in unity among VDC members: With no major activities being taken up by the

VDC, the members feel divided among their opinions and views regarding developmental

activities in Gagillapur. With some commonly agreed upon Entry Point Activities, the

VDC members would be put on the forefront and delegated activities for the execution of

these activities. This would improve relationships within the VDC and encourage them to

take up activities by themselves.

iii. Increase cooperation and participation from the GP: All entry point activities, would

involve the cooperation of the GP with the VDC and MAS team. Through the entry point

activities, a synergy would be created between GP, VDC and MAS.

iv. Improve partnerships with surrounding companies: As Gagillapur is set in a semi-urban

landscape it is surrounded by 17 companies. A brief round of preliminary meetings was

held with some of the companies. Innofab, Schneider and Granules were considered as

the companies with whom we could collaborate to usher in the entry point activities. This

would lead to better relationships with surrounding companies, VDC members and MAS

team.

After consultation with VDC, six activities were finalized. These activities were to be conducted, keeping the VDC and its Office Bearers on the forefront. The activities are projected with the consent of Gram Panchayath and Village Development Committee. Funds for these activities are to be mobilized from different potential companies around the village. Any gap that needs to be filled will be done so from Project funds, to accomplish the task. As of the urgency and prioritization of any activity the project funds might be utilized with the prior intimation to the donor.

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EPA 1: Tailoring Centre

In order to provide livelihood opportunities to unemployed men and women, it was decided after consultation with VDC, to map their needs and assess their existing skill sets.

Keeping this in view, a livelihood needs’ assessment was conducted on 4thand 5th January, 2017. A total of 38 members participated in the activity. Majority of the women who had registered at the CMRC, have been residents of Gagillapur for the past three years.

Attempts were made earlier to mobilize the youth for skill development. Due to lack of interest on their side, the turnout would be very low. Hence, it was decided to concentrate on the registered women. Out of the 38 women who came, 34 had expressed interests in learning tailoring and fashion designing.

With Gagillapur being surrounded by 17 companies, there is a demand for company uniforms. At the same time, with Gagillapur being closely located to Hyderabad, demand for tailored clothes is high.

The ultimate goal of this tailoring training program is to enhance the quality of life of women and adolescent girls by enhancing their skills and knowledge through vocational trainings like sewing, which will empower them and help them become independent.

Establishing a Tailoring Centre for women

Objective: To ensure livelihood opportunities for the unemployed women enrolled in CMRC Strategy:

viii. To map the number of women interested in Tailoring activities ix. Procure sewing machines for training purpose x. Identify an instructor xi. Prepare a plan of schedulefor trainings and slots for the identified women xii. Ensure the women have to attend regularly to learn the tailoring skills xiii. Prepare the trained women to get start the activity xiv. Explore the linkage options with existing financial sources for purchase of sewing

machines Rationale: A livelihood drive and assessment was made for all unemployed women in Gagillapur. It was noticed that some had partial training in tailoring, while others were interested in learning the same. Hence, in order to empower the women by providing training that would help them in establishing a source of income, it was decided to setup a tailoring centre, with an instructor, for supporting the unemployed women.

Success Stories

In Jaipur in 2013, most of the women start their small enterprises at home. In order to add more value in the lives of the women, a group of 20 women were handpicked and provided intensive training on home furnishing products, in Ikkat (a dying technique used to pattern textiles) for a one and a half month long training, by a master trainer from AIACA (All India Artisans and Craft Workers Welfare Associations). The training program was followed by a design workshop of these products which were made under the brand name of “Asmita”. Since Dec 2013, bulk orders of stitching and dyeing have been received, with orders coming from FabIndia (a leading brand in traditional Indian wear). The young women, who have been trained, are in charge of sourcing of the products, quality check and marketing, etc.

Another case study can be made of the successful entrepreneurs who were trained under Scheme for Assistance to Training Institutions, sponsored by MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises under Govt of India).

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KumariAmbika from Gulbarga in Karnataka, had undergone training period of one month intailoring services, with the aim to financially support the household. The training centre has:

i. High speed motorized sewing machine ii. Specialized sewing machine iii. Two instructors iv. Audio and video aids for effective understanding

Training was given on:

i. Machine operation, stitching exercises and cutting patterns ii. How to start an enterprise and manage it

After the completion of her training, she setup her own shop with a monthly rent of 800 INR and self-investment of 30,000 INR. With this she has purchased four sewing machines, one picot machine, and furniture. She has also employed four women under her to support her in her venture. She is earning upto 10,000 INR per month. She has also started her own training centre with four sewing machines, where she trains school drop outs and home-makers.

Follow up required after training

Entrepreneurial Activities: The women after undergoing the training need to be encouraged to practice entrepreneurial activities as the demand for tailored clothes in Hyderabad is high.

Banks or StreeNidhi Loans: Various linkage options like Banks or StreeNidhiloans need to be explored to gain financial assistance in purchasing of machines.

Establishing Market Linkages: In order to establish effective market linkages, for selling of the end products made by the trained group of women, partnerships with the companies need to be explored. For example, factory uniforms in Gagillapur can be sewn by the women.

Expected Outcomes

Women Empowerment:Women empowerment has always been marginalized due to lack of support. Through this activity, a sense of self sufficiency and entrepreneurship will be instilled among the women.

Improvement in standards of Living: With an additional source of income, the standard of living of the household of the women will also improve, over a period of time.

Activity Hub at Gagillapur: The CMRC after hosting such training sessions will become a centre for various kinds of activities. This will help in further mobilization and spreading of awareness among the residents.

Increased Mobilization: With the first successful batch of Trained Tailors, the women from other habitations would also be motivated to participate in such training sessions and other activities.

EPA 2- Provision of an auto

Provision of an auto for delivery of drinking waterand spreading awareness on activities of model village:

Objective: i. To ensure access to clean drinking waterfor the entire village from RO plant ii. To educate the community and bring in behavioral change by spreading awareness on

various issues like Sanitation, Health and Hygiene etc. Strategy:

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i. Procure an auto and hand over to VDC ii. Identify a suitable candidate for driving the auto through consultation of VDC iii. Give the responsibility of maintaining the auto to the waterand Sanitation Sub-Committee iv. Fix timings for operation of the auto and delivery of waterbubbles at doorsteps v. Generate income source from the delivery of waterbubbles vi. Procure a sound system with microphone facility and fix it on the auto spreading of

awareness vii. Fix the charge for vehicle assistants for service delivery viii. Prepare material for spreading awareness and hand over to Driver time to time

Rationale: The village has five habitations spread over a large area. This leads to difficulties in providing services for the community. To avoid the confusion of requisition for more RO plants for increased access to safe drinking water, purchasing of an auto was proposed. This would help in improving access to drinking wateras well as, prevent wastage of resources in reviving a second RO Plant at Church Gagillapur. At the same time it is ensure the optimum utilisation of the waterplant. The auto will be managed by the VDC Sub Committee (WaterandSanitation).

EPA 3- LED Street lights

Replace Street Lights with LED technology

Objective: To save the electricity consumption and reduce the electricity bills for Gram Panchayath Strategy:

i. Jointly identifythe places for replacement of streetlights with VDC and GP ii. Enquire regarding the suppliers, prepare quotations and negotiate with the best supplier iii. Prepare a plan for procuring the material, installation and maintenance iv. Make a comparative cost analysis of how much electricity will be saved

Rationale: By replacing the street lights with LED technology, the village reaches some level of homogeneity in all habitations. With this action, the community will have higher trust in the Project and the VDC will gain higher recognition in the village. The present lighting system consists of 150 Watt bulbs and consumes more electricity when compared with the 40 Watts capacity of LED bulbs. If replaced by LED Lights, the consumption of electricity will reduce by more than half from the current situation. So, the Gram Panchayath will save the electricity by almost 50% or less than the current expenditure. Action will be taken based on the mobilization and availability of funds to replace entire existing streetlights. It has been decided that VDC and GP will mobilize 50% of funds, while remaining funds will be mobilised by Shakti Hörmannand MAS.

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OPEN DEFECATION FREE

VILLAGE

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In the Larger Context Three out of five people in rural India suffer the indignity of defecating in the open. This is even more heightened for women as they have to wait until sunset to relieve them to avoid the embarrassment.

With sanitation being a major challenge in India, in 2014 the Government of India launched the largest ever drive to improve sanitation, known as Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), or the Clean India Mission, worth 1.5 billion dollars.

The aim is to end open defecation by 2 Oct 2019, along with behavioral change among communities, and improve the management of solid and liquid waste. World Bank will support the program by giving the Government performance based incentives.

Previous attempts to reduce open defecation have been unsuccessful. Toilets were built, but there was no motivation to use them. The new Mission draws from these lessons, and will involve trained facilitators to instigate people to use toilets by addressing the cultural and behavioural patterns that have prevented them from doing so. Once the desire is established, villages will be placed in charge of drawing up their own plans to put an end to open defecation.The facilitators will help in identifying spots to construct toilets, and masons will be trained to construct toilets suitable to the terrain.

In order to monitor the progress made, through a national sample survey on sanitation annually by a third party agency. The indicator will be measured in terms of the number of rural people who have stopped open defecation, whether villages have sustained their open defecation status and improvements in solid and liquid waste management. Based on survey findings, World Bank will release funds every year to the Government, with additional grants based on performance. The World Bank will also assist in strengthening institutions such as Ministry of Drinking WaterSupply and Sanitation.

The story of Gagillapur Gagillapur, being set in a peri-urban landscape and close to Hyderabad, faces a serious issue of waste management and sanitation.

As a part of Mission Gagillapur, it was decided to make efforts to have Gagillapur declared as ODF by 2019. With Gagillapur being spread over 5 different habitations, it was decided to go habitation wise.

ODF Activities in Gagillapur:

i. Individual Households: The GP had identified 32 households who were eligible but do not

have toilets, and 11 households had pending payments. With the help of MAS’s facilitation,

pending payments to IHHL were cleared and 16 additional toilets are yet to be constructed.

Through the survey conducted by MAS, households were identified, out of which three

were found to be eligible, whose applications were forwarded to the Gram Panchayat.

ii. Behavioral change: MAS conducted a triggering process with the school children from the

Primary school in Church Gagillapur on 26th November, followed by another triggering

process at Rajeev Gandhi Nagar on 27th Nov and with High school students from Main

Village in Dec. A rally was conducted with school children on open defecation. A team of

children were oriented to visitearly morning and cover defecation with soil (Cat

Method).These vigilant activities are supposed to continue until the village is announced as

ODF.Alternatively, the VDC or the GP can make daily announcements to not allow open

defecation, and anybody found to be doing so will be charged a fine of 500 INR

.

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iii. Waste Management: In order to manage waste, the Collector visited the village and advised

the villagers to construct soak pits to prevent spread of diseases.

iv. Awareness on Hand wash: Awareness on hand wash was given to SHG members in VO

Meetings by MAS.

In Gagillapur, the places where toilets are needed the most, the land is illegally occupied and has a high rate of migration. This makes it difficult for the Government to sanction the construction of toilets on illegal land.

Even in Main Village, toilets exist but nobody uses them, as the behavioural change has not taken place. Hence, with so many sensitive issues surrounding construction & usage of toilets, Gagillapur is far from being declared as ODF because the behaviour and practices of the population are not conducive to be declared as ODF.

Way Forward The Government will continue to work on infrastructure, and MAS will facilitate and support wherever required. But more importantly, the project seeks to focus on an integrated approach to ODF Behaviour change communication, solid and liquid waste management.

The following activities can be taken up to initiate the process of declaring Gagillapur as ODF:

i. Complete construction of remaining 16 Toilets

ii. Release 6000 INRfrom GP to whoever completed construction of toilet

iii. GP to interact with Management of Brick industries to provide temporary toilets to workers

iv. Construction of Public Toilets with waterfacility at OD areas of village

v. Arrange an auto for announcing key messages on ODF

vi. Provide awareness on Hand wash before having food and after using of toilet

vii. Facilitate the VDC or Sanitation Sub-committee to go on a transact walk in the odf areas to

understand the situation and plan for effective implementation of ODF.

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THE VIEW FROM THE OUTSIDE-

MISSION GAGILLAPUR

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My name is Len MacDonald and I am a resident of Canada, visiting India for the first time. I met the CEO of MAS (formerly APMAS) last spring in my hometown of Antigonish , Nova Scotia, home of the internationally acclaimed, Coady International Institute. Upon his invitation, I have come to India to volunteer with a few non profit groups.

I am a journalist and author and my mission is to document the work that MAS is doing in Southern India. Because I am “not from here”, I can bring a fresh perspective as someone who has spent their entire life in a completely different culture. The account that follows comes from two visits to Gagillapur during the month of November, 2016.

When I look at the mission statement of MAS, it appears that its primary goal is to provide Self Help Groups and Self Help Federations with the necessary tools to alleviate poverty and overcome inequalities.

Affecting meaningful change requires partnerships, cooperation and coordination. Mission Gagillapur has three stakeholders: Shakti Hörmann, The Government of Telangana and MAS.

So, what exactly did I witness in the time I spent in Gagillapur?

One of the primary challenges faced by Gagillapur is the structure of the community itself. It is comprised of five distinct areas. There are not many people in Church Gagillapur who were actually born and raised there. Many of the residents are migrant farmers as well as factory workers and many of them are illiterate. I believe the biggest challenge facing the community is improving the literacy level of its citizens. Without communication skills, the capacity for the community to move forward is very limited.

The heart of any small place is its schools.

Education is a basic right. In Canada, all children are afforded the opportunity to a good quality education, regardless of race, religion or socio economic status. Public education is funded by all levels of government through to grade 12 (12th level). There are also private paying schools which is the responsibility of parents. Children attend schools that have highly skilled educators and all of the modern conveniences, including the latest in technological advances.

The Mandal Parishad Primary School does not possess some of the very basic facilities that one would expect in a school. While improvements have been made, accessing waterfor cleaning and toilets along with drinking wateris a constant challenge, according to Principal M.L. Naidu. On one of the two visits, there was no running water. Waterwas being piped in from neighbouring households on this occasion. Upon questioning, Mr. Naidu suggested that the waterproblems were not strictly a matter of finances but rather political will. Wateris the primary responsibility of the Gram Panchayat. There appears to be a lack of coordination between those who would complete the work and the authorities who authorize the expenditure.

In order for meaningful change to come to the school and the community at large, it must begin with the people who live there. The school has a 16 member Management Committee but because they are poorly educated, they do not have the required skills to make demands of various levels of government.

The Primary school has 143 students. In order for a school with these numbers to meet the minimum required standards of education, there should be four full time teachers and a full time principal. In fact, the school has two full time teachers while Mr. Naidu splits his time as a classroom teacher and as principal.

MAS has worked hard to help improve the student – teacher ratio by providing an Education Volunteer in the school. MAS also spearheaded a Children’s day where they conducted games and

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spoke to the children about the importance of taking up higher education. They also facilitated in the levelling of the playground to prevent flooding along with the installation of gates to prevent local youth from using the school premises after hours for the consumption of alcohol.

One bright spot for the staff and the students is the school’s partnership with St. Francis College. Students from the college come to the community every year as part of a “stay camp. “ These students engage with the children for a full week as part of the “campus to community” initiative. A representative of the college, Manjiri Prashant feels that this program is very valuable for her students to see the world in a broader context, especially when it comes to the plight of the poor.

So what has MAS done to improve conditions at the school? Mr. Naidu expressed his appreciation to MAS. He feels that MAS is playing a critical role in trying to improve the quality of education for his students. In addition to some infrastructure upgrades, MAS has also assisted with improvements to the library and the kitchen garden initiative. There is a proposal to the State to provide funds to construct a proper dining hall. Other items on the “wish list” are tables, furniture and a sound system with a microphone. Most importantly, he feels that the MAS team is listening and doing their best to assist him with the rather large task in front of him.

The “Mission Gagillapur” is primarily funded by Hörmann KG, Germany, one of whose factory outlets is located in Gagillapur.

Mr. Naidu acknowledges and appreciates the contribution of Shakti Hörmann who has provided school bags, shoes and socks for the children at the school. Aurobindo Pharma will be providing benches as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility activities, with facilitation by MAS.

The reverse osmosis waterplant was built in 2013 but became defunct for a number of reasons. Recently, the plant has been operating at a deficit because raw waterwas being purchased but with structural improvements, better management and a favourable monsoon season, there is cause for optimism. At current usage, the waterplant expects to clear off its accumulated debts early in 2017 and become profitable. This may lead to an expansion of the waterprogram.

The Sarpanch of Gagillapur, Srinivas, is also pleased with the progress being made in the community through the efforts and interventions of MAS. He noted that he could see positive changes occurring in the village due to the support of MAS. He points out that the most important project so far has been the resurrection of the waterfiltration plant (RO Plant). There are approximately 250 families who now access clean drinking wateron a regular basis at a nominal cost of 20 litres for 5 INR. He says that treating solid waste is the next big priority for the village.

MAS is also involved in local anganwadis. These are government sponsored child care and mother care centers. They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of a program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. Housed in very modest structures, there is an amazing variety of programming. In addition to its primary role to help prepare younger children for school, it also serves as a resource centre for pregnant and lactating mothers along with adolescent female hygiene education. The hope is that MAS will be able to assist the village with preparing resolutions to government so that a second preschool can be built closer to the primary school in order to serve the poorest region close to Church Gagillapur.

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FACES IN THE CROWD

“My greatest wish is that we can give our

Meet Balaraju.

The youngest of three siblings born to Narsamma and Veeraiah in Gagillapur, India, hard work has been the hallmark of Balaraju’s life, starting at a very early age. His parents weren’t all that iChores around the family home took precedence. A teacher by the name of Rachael encouraged him to enrol and through his own initiative, he began hiseducational journey.In the eleventh and twelfth levels, his focus on sciences: biology, physics and chemistry but deep down, he knew that this wasn’t the direction he wanted to go. He was profoundly affected during his eighth level by the Mandal president at the time, GnaneswarMudiraj. He was enthralled by hiactivism. Balaraju even volunteered to assist the president for a number of years.He entered the Bachelor of Arts program at Osmania University as he now had his sights clearly set on community development and local politics. level due to family problems and a lack of money.

For six years he worked as a milk vendor getting up at 3:00 in the morning to go area farms to pick up milk and deliver it to the depot. The hours and the couple have two children: a son, Pavan and a daughter, Sowmya.

Even though the milk business provided a steady income for the family, politics was in his blood so it was no surprise that he decided to run for the office of village president in 2006. Despite being outspent by a margin of three to one in the election campaign, Balaraju came out on top.

He realized that his community needed a lot of help to raise the standard of living. He kndoors of companies doing business in the area. He managed to secure money for a He also realized that these same companies were also contributing something else that was far less desirable: pollution. He made his case,companies to improve air and water

He recognized that a healthy community contributes to a prosperous community and so he worked very hard to improve health standards. This required a great personality and strong work ethic made him a well respected leader in the village.

When his term of office expired, he stayed involved in the community and remains so until this day. He is quick to point out that in order for the village to continue to move forward, that interventions from organizations like MAS are crucial. “Our people need to be empowered to speak up for themselves and MAS is giving us the necessary tools to doincluding oversight on infrastructure projects and working closely with groups in the community to build capacities. At the end of the day, we must become masters of our own destiny.”

Balaraju is a social worker at heart and continues to fight for basic amenities that many places take for granted. “My big dream is to see the day when we have a modern sewage treatment said.Don’t be fooled by his warmth, his firm handshake and his easy smile. Bconsumed with passion to make his community the best it can be.

FACES IN THE CROWD – BORN TO LEAD

“My greatest wish is that we can give our children the skills to better their lives.”

The youngest of three siblings born to Narsamma and Veeraiah in Gagillapur, India, hard work has been the hallmark of Balaraju’s life, starting at a very

early age. His parents weren’t all that interested in educating their children. Chores around the family home took precedence. A teacher by the name of Rachael encouraged him to enrol and through his own initiative, he began his educational journey.In the eleventh and twelfth levels, his focus was mainly on sciences: biology, physics and chemistry but deep down, he knew that this wasn’t the direction he wanted to go. He was profoundly affected during his eighth level by the Mandal president at the time, GnaneswarMudiraj. He was enthralled by his speeches and his community activism. Balaraju even volunteered to assist the president for a number of years. He entered the Bachelor of Arts program at Osmania University as he now had his sights clearly set on community development and local politics. Regrettably, he had to drop out of the program in the 13level due to family problems and a lack of money.

For six years he worked as a milk vendor getting up at 3:00 in the morning to go area farms to pick up milk and deliver it to the depot. The hours were long and the work was hard. In 1996, he married Pushpa and the couple have two children: a son, Pavan and a daughter, Sowmya.

Even though the milk business provided a steady income for the family, politics was in his blood so it was e decided to run for the office of village president in 2006. Despite being outspent by a

margin of three to one in the election campaign, Balaraju came out on top.

He realized that his community needed a lot of help to raise the standard of living. He kndoors of companies doing business in the area. He managed to secure money for a He also realized that these same companies were also contributing something else that was far less desirable: pollution. He made his case, stood his ground and extracted commitments from these

water quality.

He recognized that a healthy community contributes to a prosperous community and so he worked very hard to improve health standards. This required a great deal of public education. His bold, dynamic personality and strong work ethic made him a well respected leader in the village.

When his term of office expired, he stayed involved in the community and remains so until this day. He is in order for the village to continue to move forward, that interventions from are crucial. “Our people need to be empowered to speak up for themselves and

MAS is giving us the necessary tools to do this, “he commented. “ MAS has helped in so many ways including oversight on infrastructure projects and working closely with groups in the community to build capacities. At the end of the day, we must become masters of our own destiny.”

ial worker at heart and continues to fight for basic amenities that many places take for granted. “My big dream is to see the day when we have a modern sewage treatment said.Don’t be fooled by his warmth, his firm handshake and his easy smile. Behind that veil is a man consumed with passion to make his community the best it can be.

this wasn’t the direction he wanted to go. He was profoundly affected during his eighth level by the s speeches and his community

He entered the Bachelor of Arts program at Osmania University as he now had his sights clearly set on

Regrettably, he had to drop out of the program in the 13th

For six years he worked as a milk vendor getting up at 3:00 in the morning to go area farms to pick up were long and the work was hard. In 1996, he married Pushpa

Even though the milk business provided a steady income for the family, politics was in his blood so it was e decided to run for the office of village president in 2006. Despite being outspent by a

He realized that his community needed a lot of help to raise the standard of living. He knocked on a lot of doors of companies doing business in the area. He managed to secure money for a water storage sump. He also realized that these same companies were also contributing something else that was far less

stood his ground and extracted commitments from these

He recognized that a healthy community contributes to a prosperous community and so he worked very deal of public education. His bold, dynamic

personality and strong work ethic made him a well respected leader in the village.

When his term of office expired, he stayed involved in the community and remains so until this day. He is in order for the village to continue to move forward, that interventions from are crucial. “Our people need to be empowered to speak up for themselves and

has helped in so many ways including oversight on infrastructure projects and working closely with groups in the community to build

ial worker at heart and continues to fight for basic amenities that many places take for granted. “My big dream is to see the day when we have a modern sewage treatment plant, “he

ehind that veil is a man

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MAS field staff find the work in Gagillapur both stimulating and very challenging. Mobilizing a community like this is very difficult. Like people in most small towns and villages, change never comes easily. Some of the village counsellors still see MAS as a threat but with each new improvement, the task becomes marginally easier.

There is one thing that leaves me conflicted. After spending considerable time discussing the basic necessities of life in the village, I discovered a brand new Catholic Church on a property very close to the primary school and adjacent to the MAS field office. It is not my place to make judgment calls on whether religious institutions build modern, well appointed facilities. But it seems rather ironic that a facility that serves a small number of congregants is feet away from an institution of learning that has no running water.

In my opinion, MAS is playing a crucial role in helping to alleviate poverty in Gagillapur. Besides all of the tangible evidence that supports this claim, there is one intangible which is every bit as important. MAS is giving people hope which is undeniably crucial to help the community move forward.

Len MacDonald Volunteer with MAS from Canada www.week45.com

http://www.week45.com/

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Annexure 1: Roles and Responsibilities of the VDC

Roles & Responsibilities of Office Bearers:

a. VDC President

i. To supervise and monitor all programs organized by the VDC

ii. To preside over all the VDC meetings

iii. To sign all judicial documents of VDC

iv. To assist in operating the VDC Bank account along with the Treasurer and MAS

Project Officer

v. To conduct VDC monthly meetings and delegate responsibilities to members

vi. To reach out to other agencies for gaining support for Village development

Committee

vii. To develop short and long term VDC Action Plans

viii. To ensure the regular and effective functioning of sub-committees

ix. To be a part of one of the sub-committees and monitor its functioning

x. To maintain good rapport with various Government and Non-government

institutions

b. Vice President:

i. To assist and cooperate with the President

ii. To be a part of one of the sub-committees and monitor its functioning

iii. To preside over VDC meetings in absence of President

iv. To maintain good rapport with various institutions (GO, NGOs etc.)

c. Secretary:

i. To prepare agenda with after consultation with fellow OB members and intimate all

VDC members through phone / mails/ SMS

ii. To create an official Email ID for VDC

iii. To secure assets of the VDC

iv. To sign all judicial documents of VDC along with President

v. To frame Rules and Regulations for VDC

vi. To prepare Annual Action Plan with specific objectives after consultation of

members

vii. To manage communication

viii. To prepare list of eligible and ineligible members for VDC meeting

ix. To identify members for the vacancies of the VDC

x. To be a part of one of the sub-committees and monitor its functioning

d. Joint Secretary:

i. To assist and cooperate with Secretary in day to day activities

ii. To assist in preparing agenda for VDC Meeting

iii. To assist the Secretary with the communication related activities

iv. To maintain good relation with various institutions (GOs, NGOs, etc.)

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e. Treasurer:

i. To maintain accounts of the VDC ( Receipts and Payments of VDC )

ii. To maintain and record all cash transactions

iii. To prepare all bank statements of Annual Transactions

iv. To prepare annual activity list and Financial plan for VDC

v. To conduct audits, once in three months and prepare statements

vi. To assist in mobilizing funds and utilize idle funds

vii. To operate along with President and Project Officer regarding the VDC Bank Account

Roles and Responsibilities of the other VDC members:

i. To attend monthly and any special VDC meetings. If unable to attend, the Secretary

has to be informed prior to meeting over phone/SMS/email. If any member is not

attending for 3 consecutive meetings, his/her name will be eliminated by default.

ii. To identify members for the vacancies in VDCafter consultation

iii. To be responsible for taking up and completion of any developmental activity

iv. To be a part of any subcommittee and fulfill the responsibilities through these

activities

Role of MAS and Shakthi Hörmann:

i. To attend VDC Meetings regularly

ii. To assist the OB in preparing agenda for VDC meeting

iii. To facilitate VDC meetings for effective discussions

iv. To support and facilitate in opening and managing of Bank accounts

v. To support development activities by mobilizing funds for VDC

vi. To facilitate in the preparation of Action plans ( Monthly and Annually )

vii. To support in implementing the various planned activities in coordination with VDC

and Gram Panchayat

viii. Providing technical and operational assistance to the VDC through the CMRC and

other resource persons brought in through the MGP project

Role of VDC in connection with Grama Panchayath:

i. To share the Village development action plans with GP through Executive Officer

ii. To prepare applications for the eligible beneficiaries to access Government Schemes,

which will be further taken up by the GP

iii. To follow up on functioning of RO waterplant functions and other related issues

iv. To communicate to GP Representatives to participate in VDC meetings and various

developmental activities organized by VDC

v. To seek co-operation from GP for any Village developmental activities

vi. To serve as the ‘voice of the community’ in its interactions with the GP with respect

to various Government schemes & programs being implemented

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Role of VDC to work with Habitation committees:

i. To identify one VDC representativewho will attend the meetings of existing

habitation committees of Chaitanyanagar, Church Gagillapur and Rajeev Gandhi

nagar and note down the discussion points

ii. To present these discussion points at the VDC EC meetings for further step of action

iii. To work with the habitation committee meetings in solving relevant issues

Norms for conducting VDC Meeting:

i. All members have to attend on time

ii. Mobile phone to be switched off or put in silent mode

iii. Late entry is strictly prohibited

iv. To participate and discuss on relevant topics

v. To not raise any unnecessary arguments

vi. To create trust among community regarding the VDC